For the fourth year in a row, the library earned the DESE Exemplary School Library Program award.
Our library was one of nine schools to receive the award from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and the only school in the state to receive it four years in a row. Librarian Margaret Sullivan said schools are decided by five different factors.
“[DESE] is designed to recognize exemplary school libraries. It is an application process with five categories: instruction, leadership, library environment, library management, and staffing,” Sullivan said.
Libraries must apply for the recognition and provide evidence that they meet all the requirements. Sullivan said some great libraries don’t have the resources to meet the qualifications of the award.
“Dr.[Gregory] Baum and I are very intentional about everything that we do. There are a lot of amazing librarians across the state but their programs won’t qualify for this because they don’t have the support in their building. Oftentimes it’s not because the districts don’t care about the library– it’s that they don’t have the funding. You have to have the appropriate staffing, you have to have the budget, you have to have things some smaller districts can’t provide,” Sullivan said.
The library sponsors multiple activities like Reading to the Summit, a book club, a bookmark competition, and more to get students involved in the library. Sullivan said the program is lucky to receive support from the community.
“[What makes the program special is] our community, what we have from our administrator, certainly the support we have from the teachers that collaborate with us, and just the support we have from parents and students,” Sullivan said.
Junior Asher Mitchell said the club votes and reads about six books every school year.
“The book club is run by the two librarians: Dr. [Gregory] Baum and Ms. Sullivan; they’re awesome. At the beginning of the year we vote on the books and choose about six books and throughout the school year we read them and we all have meetings and discuss the books,” Mitchell said.
One of the requirements is the library environment which includes the library’s physical space, a variety of programs, and the current technologies.
“For the librarian environment, we’re fortunate that we have this big beautiful space. We have to show we offer different programs that are cross-curricular and that it’s not all reading, like how our bookmark contest has art involved,” Sullivan said.
Mitchell said the book club environment has helped her make new connections in high school.
“It has helped me connect with more people that have the same interest as me,” Mitchell said.
Another requirement is instruction which involves teaching lessons in multiple subject areas and student growth through their instruction.
“The whole first category is instruction so we have to show we use different types of assessment in our lessons and that we teach multiple literacies, we use technology in the lessons that we do, we support multiple curricular areas,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said Rockwood supports the library programs.
“All the libraries are fortunate in Rockwood that the district supports libraries, particularly the curriculum department,”
