WEST JORDAN — It may look like a normal day in the office of Majestic Elementary Arts Academy. But behind the scenes, the staff is watching the clock, waiting to pull off a surprise for one of their own.

“I always say she can teach anybody to read,” said Principal Marianne Johansen, speaking of reading assistant DeAnn Blackburn, who’s been helping struggling children learn to read for over a decade. “She’s brilliant. She’s patient, she’s kind, she’s intelligent.”

Out in the hallway, the staff is taping paper over the windows leading into a hallway, hoping to hide what’s going on.

“We started by just kind of saying, ‘We have to turn this into something,’” Johansen said.

That “something” left the school scrambling.

“Oh, we found out about 1 (p.m.) yesterday,” she said, laughing. “We got

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