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# McKinley Principal Shaves Head After Students Exceed Read-a-thon Goal
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/060405-story-20050604/
- Published: 2005-06-04T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:13:41.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

You say you’re willing to do anything to get your child to read more? To the cheers of hundreds of McKinley Elementary School students, Principal Paco Garcia fulfilled a promise to shave his head if students would reach their reading goals. During the recent McKinley Read-a-thon, students read more than 5,100 books, far exceeding their goal of 4,000 books.

At an afternoon assembly on Thursday, May 26, students chanted in unison, “Shave that head!” in anticipation. The top student readers had the honor of making the first cuts, followed by a mohawk design and finally, a bald head. The bald Garcia encouraged the students to keep reading and learning.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 4, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060405.pdf?ref=smdp.com)