Winamac Middle/High School officials continue to rethink the traditional school library. The Eastern Pulaski School Board got an update last week from Media Center Director Karen Butler. For the past three years, she’s led the high school’s Warrior Academy program and added the media center into her list of responsibilities a few months ago.
“My biggest goal in taking this was to create a media center/learning center that is actually the hub of the school, not just a quiet little area where people go to get resources,” she told board members. “It’s an active, viable, living, breathing area that people can either come there or I can go into the classroom, and that is a huge focus.”
As part of that effort, Butler said she’s made several small changes that have collectively had a big impact. For one thing, she’s been looking for ways to collaborate with teachers and support their existing curriculum. “We now have a new circulation policy,” she said. “Students can now check out DVDs overnight. Let’s say they missed a movie. Let’s say they want to catch up on something. Why not allow them to see those DVDs that enhance the curriculum that they can use? Also, we now have books in Spanish. I’ve talked to our Spanish teachers. I said, ‘What would you like to see?’ and they said, ‘Can we get some lower-level books in Spanish for kids to practice?’ I said, ‘Well, why not?’ To me, that just makes sense.”
On top of that, Butler said she’s gotten a McDonald’s MAC grant to purchase two 65-inch TV screens for students and faculty to use. She’s also hoping to create student collaboration areas. “I’m hoping to move some things around to where I have two rooms that I can have work groups go in and work with a computer hub,” she explained. “So that way, they can work on collaborating on presentations and things like that.” Plans also call for the media center to host after-school tutoring, as well as information on career and college pathways.
For now, Butler’s efforts already appear to be paying off. She says about 300 students use the media center each week, and circulation has doubled from last year’s levels. The space also proved to be valuable in the aftermath of the recent school bus accident that claimed the life of a middle school student. “The one thing I can honestly say is I’m so happy to be able to have an area that everybody could come in and share and grieve and talk and feel comfortable,” Butler said. “I had several of the counselors come in and talk to me afterwards and say, ‘Thank you for providing this area.’ It’s not sterile. The kids feel comfortable. They could come in and sit. They got to pet the dogs. They felt it was just a lot more comfortable for everybody, and I’m glad that we were able to do it.”
During last week’s meeting, Superintendent Dan Foster noted that Butler was recently named the VFW’s District 2 Teacher of the Year. She will now compete against the 11 other district winners for the State Teacher of the Year designation.
