SANGER – According to the individuals who oversee library operations for Sanger Unified School District (SUSD), the District’s libraries are in good shape.
Nichole Rosales, Curriculum Program Coordinator, and Sara Smith, District Library Media Coordinator, presented their findings to the SUSD Board at its Nov. 12, 2024 meeting held at Jackson Elementary. Smith said one of the biggest successes is the increase over last year in District funding per student.
“Based on the CDE (California Department of Education) funding expectation, we should be at $19 per student,” Smith said. “This year, we achieved that.” Funding per student in the 2023-24 school year was $16.
Smith said last year’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) allotment for books was $211,000. The District also received nearly $96,000 from the state through a California Instructional Materials Block Grant. She added that different school sites also contributed over $15,000 for books.
MORE BOOKS, LESS BOOKS
Rosales and Smith also pointed to the increase in the number of books on library shelves. The District has over 85,000 books for elementary students in its collection. It also has nearly 48,000 e-books.
“We have seen a lot of (book) checkouts with iPads,” said Smith. “And also, with the high school e-books.”
The District has over 38,000 titles in its K-8 collection; 37,000 in its high school collection; 12,800 in its middle school collection; and 3,900 in its alternative schools collection.
Smith acknowledged the District lags behind CDE’s books per student ratio of 28 to one. Elementary schools top the list with a ratio of 22 books per student. Sanger High and Sanger High West are struggling with a nine to one ratio.
The District boasts an impressive collection of books in Spanish, with over 4,700 titles.
“We are looking to increase that,” said Smith. “(Our collection) is largely due to our dual language academies at Del Rey and Centerville.”
Over 17,000 books were added to elementary school libraries since the District conducted an inventory in 2022-23. Secondary schools added over 4,500 titles. Smith said the District needs to improve on bringing down the average age of the books in the various collections.
“CDE says around 10 years,” said Smith. The high schools are in good shape. The average age of the books in their collections aligns with the CDE’s recommendation. Books in the other library collections date back to 2009 and 2010.
“This is the sad part,” Smith said, as she moved onto the nearly 12,500 books that have been deleted from the District’s inventory since the 2022-23 book count. Smith explained why books get deleted.
“We delete books that are too old,” she said “Then there are the books that come back (returned) to us that are gross. They come back moldy, they come back destroyed – there’s no saving them.”
Smith joked they have a book hospital where they do everything in their power to resuscitate books.
“We tape them, we glue them,” she said. “We try to get as many circulations out of them as possible.” Books that cannot be saved are given to students and to teachers for art projects.
STAFFING
Rosales said the libraries are staffed near to CDE’s recommendations. For example, CDE recommends at each elementary and K-8 site, there be one eight-hour library media technician (LMT). The District employs one six-hour LMT at these schools. CDE recommends one eight-hour LMT and one teacher librarian (TL) at each junior high school. At Washington Academic Middle School (WAMS), there is one six-hour LMT and one TL. In fact, Smith is the one TL in the District.
Sanger High employs two eight-hour LMTs and one four-hour LMT; Sanger High West, one eight-hour LMT and one four-hour LMT. CDE recommends one eight-hour LMT and one TL at each high school site.
Smith is the lone TL for the 13,000 plus District students, which falls significantly short of the CDE recommendation of one TL per 785 students.
Something the District is not struggling with its reading programs. Del Rey Elementary partnered with the Fresno Grizzlies to promote the school’s “Wild About Reading” challenge. Del Rey students who read 10 books could win tickets to a Grizzlies home game.
Natalie Flores rose to the challenge and then some – the third grader read 123 books in English and Spanish. For her efforts, Flores was gifted with Grizzlies merchandise and her entire class enjoyed a donut party.
The District implemented the Beanstack program last year at Del Rey, WAMS and Sanger High. Beanstack is a nationwide reading motivation program that got its start on the show “Shark Tank.” Smith said the program proved to be so successful that the District is expanding it to its Jackson, Lincoln, Fairmont, Reagan and Wilson sites.
Smith concluded the presentation by presenting a summary of the refurbishing and remodeling projects at Jackson, Del Rey, John Wash, Lincoln, WAMS and Sanger High.
“We’ve had some really fortunate investments in our libraries that have refreshed the spaces,” she said.
Smith said when Lincoln students saw the library’s new seating area for the first time, they were dumbstruck.
“They said, ‘Oh my gosh. This is so cool. This is for the teachers, right?’” said Smith. “I replied, ‘No, you sillies. This is for you’.”
When Smith concluded, Board Member Tammy Wolfe asked, “What are the kids favorite books?”
Smith responded, “100% ‘Dog Man.’ We cannot keep ‘Dog Man’ on the shelf. Then ‘Creepy Carrot.’ And ‘Creepy Underwear.’ That whole series of creepy.”
When Wolfe asked her what her favorite book was to read to students, Smith laughed and replied, “I’m a high school librarian. I don’t have to do that.”
