The recently revamped library at Riley Elementary School was the setting for the Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education’s monthly luncheon meeting on Wednesday. Music teacher Katie Knoles brought in second-graders and fifth-graders to sing to the school board.
Second-graders performed a “partner song,” combining “Rocky Mountain” and “Walking Home.” Fifth-graders have been learning patriotic songs and performed “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”
The school board holds a luncheon meeting at a different school each month, allowing the principals and other staff members to share information regarding the academic programs and school improvement efforts going on in their buildings.
Knoles showed the board some features of the Quaver music curriculum that has been in use for the past six years. Curricula are updated every seven years and Director of Teaching and Learning Tricia Reiser said teachers have indicated they’ll want the next version of Quaver when it’s time to adopt new materials.
“Students are really getting a good music experience,” Reiser said.
A star is born
Before the fifth graders left the room, Riley Principal Beth Rein asked one of them, Sebastian Quezada, to share a recent accomplishment.
“I auditioned for ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ and got a part,” he said. He will play a supporting role as Charlie in the December production at the Crest Theater, a joint offering of the Barton Community College Theatre Department and Great Bend Community Theatre.
School news
Principal Rein said the school “made the cluster level” this week, which means there have been five or more positive COVID-19 cases in the past 14 days. The school was not listed on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s cluster location report released that afternoon, however.
Aside from that, Rein was ready to share some of the positive things going on at her school.
“One of our biggest celebrations are last year’s test results,” she said. In particular, 26 Riley students passed the Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessment (KELPA), which means that students who are learning English as a second language have gained proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening. This is about twice the pass rate of previous years and it means those students won’t have to take the KELPA assessment when they move on to the middle school.
Library upgrade
By meeting in the school library, the school board got to see how the new technology specialist/librarian, Leah Yancey, did a library makeover. Yancey said the Central Kansas Library System, based in Great Bend, helped her weed out 6,457 old books (out of more than 1,400) and begin to add new ones.
“If a book hasn’t circulated in 10-plus years, it shouldn’t be in your library,” Yancey said. They eliminated books with frayed covers, some dating back to 1976.
“We touched every book in this library,” Yancey said of the two-day “weeding.” The unwanted books were recycled, with some going to preschools.
The added space did not leave the library with bare shelves. In fact, two bookcases were added but now books can be displayed so the colorful new covers can attract potential readers. Children DO judge books by their covers, at least until they find a favorite series, she said.
There are bins that hold some of the popular series, so if a reader likes one “Dog Man” book, it’s easy to find more. When children have library time they are expected to check out one non-fiction book and one chapter book, and the new setup allows them to know where to look. There are also collections of graphic novels, books in Spanish, and the latest William Allen White Book Award nominees.
School board president Jacquie Disque praised the makeover, and noted that as a young reader she always looked forward to the William Allen White announcements and the arrival of those books.
Yancey has ordered more than 200 new books this year to add to the collection. Although “new classics” are rebuilding the collection, she said there are still copies of perennial favorites such as “Charlotte’s Web” and “Little House on the Prairie.”
A full school library inventory as Riley underwent is recommended every two to three years, Yancey said. CKLS offers its services to school libraries at no charge. Yancey was the first USD 428 librarian to use the service but she said Lincoln Elementary School plans to be next.
