Bob Bernhard smiled Tuesday as he watched students begin filling up a spacious, well-organized classroom at Mountain View Elementary School. Each one was running to greet their reading mentors.

Bernhard, the site coordinator for the school's Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) program, is used to reading to students in less-than-ideal conditions. Last year, Mountain View's SMART program was held in a modular classroom located away from the main school building.

"I remember reading in hallways," Bernhard said. "Even behind curtains on stages."

SMART is a nonprofit statewide literacy program that began in the Portland area in 1992. Its goal is to spark the love of reading in students.

Christi Clark, an area assistant with Central Valley SMART, which serves Benton, Linn, Marion and Polk counties, said that a study by the Eugene Research Institute revealed that kids involved in SMART programs are 60 percent more likely to reach literacy benchmarks.

The way it works is that each volunteer spends an hour reading with two different students. The program is open to students who are in kindergarten through the third grade. They read from a book of the student's choice.

Mountain View and Lincoln K-8 School are the only two schools in Benton County that have SMART programs.

Bernhard considers having a classroom a victory for SMART, considering that the program was almost discontinued for the 2008-09 year because of coordinator funding issues and concerns that students were missing too much regular class time. That's when Bernhard and Steve Blevans stepped up during the last school year and volunteered to share the duty of being on-site coordinators.

Mountain View principal Rosemary O'Neil said that Bernhard has done a wonderful job working with teachers to schedule times that work best for the students. This year, 75 students and 30 volunteers are participating in SMART on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"He's very good at establishing relationships and working with people," O'Neil said. "He's very dedicated."

In 1998, Lincoln K-8 School (then Lincoln Elementary School) was the first Benton County school to partner with SMART. The school didn't offer a program during the 2007-08 school year due to crowding caused by the school absorbing many of the students who had attended Inavale School, which closed in June 2005. Lincoln's SMART program had been taught in a cramped class near the gymnasium.

Last school year, Lincoln offered only KSMART, a reading program for kindergartners. About 60 kindergarten students at Lincoln are taking part in KSMART this year.

After spending a year coordinating Mountain View's SMART program, Bernhard said things are going smoothly.

"Last year, the biggest thing was the training and all the paperwork," Bernhard said. "Right now the biggest challenge is finding volunteers. If we had about 10 more, we'd be in great shape."

Anyone interested in volunteering can call 754-4965 or sign up online at getsmartoregon.org and click on the "Volunteer" link at the top.