Glen Park Academy second graders Aujunique Rice and Kaylani Sanders quickly eyed the assortment of books and picked up Dr. Seuss selections.
“I like Dr. Seuss and I feel like it’s a good book,” said Aujunique. “I like to read and I have a lot of books at home.”
Kaylani agreed. “Dr. Seuss is cool. I always love non-fiction books. It’s like real people,” she said.
The youngsters sat next to each other gazing at their books Friday in the Glen Park Academy library where they received a free book as part of School House Children’s Charities’ Mother’s Day Book Give Away.
Students in each grade took turns filing into the library and choosing a book from tables scattered about the colorful space. About 650 books were available.
“Every child and teacher is getting a book to build their home library to promote literacy,” said Brian Andreshak, founder and executive director of School House Children’s Charities and also a first-grade teacher at the school.
Andreshak said he purchased the books with grants from Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and the Legacy Foundation.
This year’s book give-a-way coincides with new Indiana reading mandates that call for the retention of third graders who don’t pass the I-READ annual assessment exam and requires elementary teachers to take an 80-hour professional development course on the science of reading and then pass an exam themselves.
“We’re not happy with it,” Andreshak said the new laws. “It’s just a money-making play. We have to pay $400 if we don’t pass, to take it again.”
Andreshak signed up for the course online and said it took about an hour to get onto the state website.
Instead of the mandates, Andreshak said Indiana should offer universal pre-K. “Build the core skills early on,” he said.
Last year, 52% of the school’s third graders passed the I-READ, the second-best total of Gary’s five elementary schools. Indiana’s statewide pass rate was 82%.
The school’s library was shuttered as part of a wave of cost-cutting moves after the Gary Community School Corp. fell under state control in 2017 because of its dire financial status.
The wave of layoffs and cost cuts helped trim the budget deficit, but left students with shrinking literacy options at their schools.
When Glen Park Academy Principal Eric Worthington arrived in 2021, he made reviving the dormant school library a condition of his hiring.
“I said you can’t have a school with a single-digit reading score and not offer literacy,” Worthington said while watching students choose their books.
He spent about $20,000 of school improvement money to buy books. A vendor, Half Price Books in Orland Park, Illinois, donated 20 cases of new books to restock the shelves.
School officials said last year each elementary was reviving its library with redesigns to highlight a theme. In 2023, just 47% of Gary third graders passed the state reading exam.
Housing challenges, poverty, and relationship breakdowns all lead to more transient children in urban districts like Gary.
Worthington said the high student mobility impacts test scores.
Like Andreshak, Worthington thinks holding back third-graders who don’t pass the I-READ is bad policy that will lead to more dropouts.
“Give us the resources to remediate kids,” Worthington said, citing decreased state funding.
Despite the financial struggles, Worthington is proud of the resurrected library that’s seen the addition of hundreds more books in recent years.
“We probably put $60,000 in books into the library. It’s a showcase. It’s the heart of the school,” Worthington said.
“This room is alive. This was a labor of love,” he said of its return.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter at the Post-Tribune.
