Gainesville Elementary School hopes to use Saturdays to give an academic leg up to students who need it the most.

The school, which overlooks McEver Road at Spring Road, started last week an all-day program each Saturday that targets students struggling to read on their grade level.

The 100 students in the voluntary program get free transportation to and from school and a free breakfast and lunch. The program's six teachers stress reading, language arts and math during the day, which starts at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 2:15 p.m.

Instruction particularly focuses on the coming week's lessons, principal Shawn McCollough said.

"This is not a remediation program. We are try to prepare these kids so they can get the information the first time it's presented in class (during the regular school week)," he said.

McCollough said the program isn't designed, however, to give the Saturday students an advantage over regular-week students.

"We are trying to level the playing field for the kids who are behind," he said.

The school is focusing on students in first through fifth grade. In kindergarten, students developmentally are "pretty even."

Also, "there is a greater achievement gap starting in first grade and extending through fifth grade," McCollough said.

The school is using an $18,480 grant from Mar-Jac Poultry Inc., plus money it receives from the state for 20 additional days of instruction, to pay for the effort.

McCollough said he believes the Mar-Jac grant should send a "big message" to other poultry companies, which have many employees with children in area schools.

"They are the backbone of our community, but they need to be (financially) involved with the school systems," he said.

Saturday school already seems to be helping Johana Matus' daughter, who is in second grade.

"She came home very excited and said ... she did very well," Matus said. "She is happy to go and be able to learn things."

And while Saturdays are big for family activities, Matus said she believes her daughter is in the right place. "Anything to me that has to do with education, it's worth the sacrifice," she said.

Felicitas Vasquez has two children in the program, one excited to be there and one who is less so. She believes her less enthusiastic child will grow to like the school.

As for herself, Vasquez is sold on the program.

"I think it's a big thing that the city school system is willing to help kids who are behind," she said.

Yvonne Zalewski, a teacher at the school and the program's coordinator, said the first session went off well.

"I saw lots of smiles and kids who are happy," she said.

Zalewski said the program "gives the students the opportunity to excel and to have higher achievement in school," and that success translates into higher self-esteem.

Melanie Barton, who teaches third grade at the Saturday school, agreed.

"We will get them up to their potential, if not above and beyond," she said.

Emily Nall, another third-grade teacher on Saturdays, applauded the class setup.

"It's a smaller group and you're able to target what the (students) need to be taught," she said.

The school will continue the program through the end of the third nine-week grading period, McCollough said.

At that point, school officials will evaluate the program and decide whether to extend it for the fourth and final nine-week period of the 2003-04 school year.