St. Mary’s School Principal Sharon Gregorski went to great heights to motivate her students to meet a reading challenge.

Not figuratively, but literally.

Gregorski told students she would sit on the roof of the Niles Catholic School if they collectively spent at least 25,000 minutes reading during the month of March. The students read for 32,911 minutes, so Gregorski grabbed a ladder and a towel and sat on the roof for three hours Tuesday morning.

Why’d she decide to sit on the roof?

“I didn’t want to kiss a pig,” she said.

Gregorski was blessed with good weather Tuesday, but said she was visited by a flock of birds.

“They were flying all around,” she said.

St. Mary’s is located next to St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church.