Expanded Library Opens a New Chapter for Students

The library at Heliotrope Avenue School had never really had much going for it. And time had done it no favors.

Opened in 1924, the school had undergone various remodelings and expansions. But the money always seemed to run out before it got to the library, in a dark corner room.

In recent years, the collection began to dwindle, making it next to useless. After the outdated books were removed, fewer than 5,000 volumes--to serve a school of 1,200 students--remained. And those that did were almost all in English, while the students mostly spoke Spanish.

So the elementary school in a poor area of Maywood was like many across the state these days, forced to try to teach children to read and learn about the world without a fully functioning library.

California has never had a state budget for libraries and, in recent years, many school districts have had to cut their own support. At Heliotrope, teachers and their students sometimes hiked a mile to the Maywood branch of the L.A. County library. The instructors rarely bothered to assign research projects as homework.

Then, teachers at the school heard about a private foundation started by Pacific Theatres Corp. to help school libraries. Soon $20,000 was committed by the Wonder of Reading foundation. An equal amount was collected a dollar or two at a time from parents and local businesses and through book sales by the school. Workers at a local beer bottle factory kicked in $500.

The result was unveiled Friday: a brightly lighted library double the size of the old one. It includes a carpeted amphitheater where teachers will be able to read to students. There are computers in individual study carrels. And the walls are decorated with huge drawings of such favorite literary characters as Winnie the Pooh and Clifford, the big red dog.

Even more important, the custom-made wooden shelves are lined with the works of such authors as Tomie dePaola, Beverly Cleary and Shel Silverstein, a favorite of fifth-grader Mayra Victoria.

She said she used to “feel kind of bad” because she knew her favorite poet had written books she had yet to read. But this week, as she helped unpack new books, she saw Silverstein’s latest, “Falling Up.”

“I really wanted to read that book,” she said.

After a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and speeches honoring those who made the new library possible, Mayra and a classmate, Janine Garcia, perused the collection. They eagerly grabbed one new book after another off the shelves.

Beatriz Gonzalez, who heads the school’s parent committee, said it used to frustrate her too when her children asked questions she could not answer, or when they saw only books they had already read on the shelves. “It was like it was holding them back,” she said.

Fifth-grade teacher Catherine Moore said, “We keep preaching to the children, go to the library . . . and now we’re going to be able to send them.”

Much remains to be done before school officials realize their hopes for the library. They want to open it evenings and weekends, so people in the community can use it. And they have to raise more money, especially if they are going to be able to buy the 6,000 additional books it will take to meet the goal of having 12 books for each of the 1,200 students.

But the Maywood school is still miles ahead of many others that have temporarily displaced their libraries to provide more classroom space to help meet the state’s goal of reducing class size in the primary grades. To reach the goal of 20 students per class requires more teachers and more rooms, which are not available on many campuses.

The state’s current budget does include, for the first time, $12 million specifically to help schools buy library books. But schools that have no library will have difficulty accommodating such books.

The library at Heliotrope is the ninth funded by Wonder of Reading. If the experience of the others is any guide, Heliotrope’s adventure is just beginning.

The library completed last spring at Rosemont School, northwest of downtown Los Angeles, has become the center of the school. Police officers drop by regularly to read to kids, parents are learning to read with their children and the library stays open evenings and weekends.

“It used to be that we would have to drag the children into the library,” said Brad Rumble, chairman of Rosemont’s library committee, “and now we can’t keep them away.”