Nestled snuggly against golden Tamarack and deep green pines on a hillside overlooking the St. Joe River, Calder Elementary school is a beacon of its community. The three-room schoolhouse glistened on a foggy, rainy afternoon when the Idaho Lottery visited to make a Bucks for Books delivery in early November.
About 25 miles east of St. Maries into the St. Joe mountains, the school serves eighteen students and three teachers who welcomed the team with enthusiasm and cheered for the new books. According to Megan Sindt, the school’s administrator, in addition to serving the student population for the Calder area, the building also serves as the primary community resource hosting town meetings and the community Thanksgiving dinner.
Like many rural schools in Idaho, access to a public library is often many miles away. During the winter months, with difficult travel conditions, it can be a challenge to reach those facilities, making the school’s library more of a crucial resource.
The school, with its limited size, found a creative solution for creating their library. Just off the secondary school classroom in the basement is a closet. The space was transformed and today houses the school’s library of aging books.
“Many of our books are in need of being updated,” said Megan. “Learning begins with reading. It is where young students can let their imaginations run free.”
Katelyn Webster at Sherman Elementary in Nampa faced a unique challenge when she was hired over the summer to be the school’s librarian for their 450 students. Previous plans had been underway to renovate the library space to make room for a STEM Science lab. Books that had not been checked out for years were being boxed up and other materials were being consolidated to make room for Makerspaces.
“When I arrived, the shelves were bare and books were boxed,” said Katelyn. “It was a great challenge and opportunity to reimagine what the library could be for these students.”
New principal Lisa Dugan shared Katelyn’s vision to not only restore the library but to also turn the space into a welcoming resource that would benefit students this year and for many years to come.
“Books are the heart of the students,” said Lisa. “Some of our students and their families have a hard time finding money for shoes, let alone accessing books. We want to get books into the students’ hands because every student needs that.”
Sherman, like many schools, relies on funding from schoolbook drives to purchase books, which limits the number of new titles available each year. This year’s Bucks for Books award will go a long way toward improving their title catalog and restoring the library as a focal point for student achievement.
Perched on a hill looking over the Salmon River to the north and framed by the Sawtooth Mountains to the south is Stanley Elementary. This three-room schoolhouse boasts a student population of 23 across all grades up to 8th grade. Like many schools in Idaho, Stanley Elementary has found creative resources and methods to deliver services to meet their student needs.
With limited space and beginning to grow, the school’s library actually resides in what was once the boys’ locker room and shower next to the gym. The shower fixtures remain, and the wooden stalls that once held uniforms now hold shelves of books. The compact space offers limited resources for students hungry for new reading and learning opportunities.
“Our students often depend on our small school library for their books,” said Sammy Forsgren, the school’s librarian. “We encourage our students to always take a book home with them each night to read. Our older students are required to read 20 minutes each day. Our small library is in need of new books and current titles to keep them engaged with reading.”
Once again, the Idaho Lottery teamed up with the Idaho Commission for Libraries to deliver this year’s Bucks for Books awards. At every school, the experience is often the same. Young students become excited to see new books and oftentimes new books they’ve requested from their librarian. Bucks for Books is making a difference for early education literacy in Idaho.
There were twenty recipients for a total of $50,000. Below is a list of this year’s awardees alphabetically:
Bliss Elementary, Bliss - $3,000
Calder Elementary, Calder - $1,000
Carey Elementary, Carey - $3,000
Chief Joseph School of the Arts, Meridian - $3,000
Connor Academy, Chubbuck - $2,000
Cottonwood Elementary, Rigby, $3,000
Dora Erickson Elementary, Idaho Falls - $3,000
Ethel Boyes Elementary, Idaho Falls - $2,000
Fort Hall Elementary, Fort Hall - $1,000
Future Public School, Garden City - $3,000
Kennedy Elementary, Rexburg - $2,000
Lakevue Elementary School, Nampa - $3,000
Murtaugh Elementary, Murtaugh - $3,000
Pat Anderson School, Caldwell - $3,000
Ridge Crest Elementary, Blackfoot - $3,000
Sherman Elementary, Nampa - $3,000
Stanley Elementary, Stanley - $3,000
Summit Hills Elementary, Idaho Falls - $3,000
Troy Elementary, Troy - $2,000
West Ridge Elementary, Post Falls - $1,000
