San Francisco Schools Superintendent Richard Carranza, gestured toward the rows of brand-new books at Sanchez Elementary School’s new library and said: “This is where you come to dream and be lost.”
The vibrantly decorated library, a gift from Target Corp. and the nonprofit literacy group Heart of America Foundation, contains about 2,000 new books, 20 iPads and student–sized furnishings worth a total $100,000 to $150,000. The makeover was awarded to Sanchez after a competitive application process that began last spring.
“This is to get kids excited about literacy,” said Rachelle Resnick, the San Francisco Unified School District’s Program Administrator for Library Services. The gift follows an era of struggling public funding support for school libraries.
At a celebration last Thursday, a crowd of students, teachers and parents lined the library’s newly painted walls, decorated with famous quotations, including poet Maya Angelou’s famous line: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener took to the mic, highlighting the interconnection of student literacy rates to school libraries, and thanking parents and the community for their continued participation and support.
“It’s the community as a whole that raises these schools up,” said Wiener. “When I came into office, I actually said, ‘Sanchez is the school that I want to help the most,’ because Sanchez is a school that in the past that has struggled, and it’s completely turning things around.”
The makeover of Sanchez’s library began in the spring of 2012, when the San Francisco Unified School District selected eight schools it perceived to have the strongest need for a wholesale library renovation. It sent the eight school applications to Heart of America, which picked three schools for the final selection round.
“They came out here, and visited all three schools, talked to the principal and librarian, and of those three schools, they picked Sanchez,” explained library administrator Resnick.
After the application process, Sanchez’s library was selected for the coveted library renovation in the summer of 2012.
The renovations go far beyond the financial capacity of the school district, she said.
Funding for struggling San Francisco school libraries took a turn in 2004, when San Francisco voters approved the ballot initiative Proposition H, which established the Public Education Enrichment Fund. The passage of Proposition H came at a time of dwindling district resources and decreased state and federal funding.
While a portion of Proposition H money was set aside for school libraries, many still lack crucial resources, including up-to-date books and direct services five days a week for students. This problem persists statewide. According to the California Department of Education, there is only one teacher librarian for every 5,124 students.
Educators like Superintendent Carranza maintain that libraries are a fundamental part of the student experience, and a wide body of research links student achievement with well-developed school libraries.
Carranza called Sanchez’s library “the heart of the school” in his speech on Thursday.
Amenities in the new library include student-sized ottomans and electronic tablets, which drew an excited response from students who gleefully pumped their fists and high-fived each other when Carranza told them the library would contain iPads.
Angie Halamandaris, the Co-Founder and President of Heart of America, looked in their direction. “Are you guys going to read all the 2,000 brand new books?” she asked.
“Yes!” several interjected.
In the coming year, Heart of America plans to renovate 32 libraries nationally. The organization works closely with the school districts to encourage certain schools to apply, said Halamandaris.
“These are schools that usually have high free and reduced lunch numbers, that have strong leaders, and schools that have a need, that a library would make a huge difference in the literacy education of students,” she said.
At Sanchez, 83 percent of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and 78 percent were English learners in 2011, according to the 2011 Base Academic Performance Index Report.
While test scores are improving, 34 percent — just over one-third — of second grade students scored at or above proficient in English Language Arts on the 2012 California Standards Tests. In other grades, 29 percent of third grade students, 40 percent of fourth grade students, and 39 percent of fifth grade students scored at or above proficient.
Heart of America selected Sanchez based on a combination of scores, economics and the character of the school community.
“We just fell in love with the space, and the leadership and the students. We knew that this would be such a great resource for the schools,” said Halamandaris.
Source:
http://missionlocal.org/2012/10/sanchez-library-is-where-you-come-to-dream/