Trego's Mountain Ear

After a recent board meeting, Trego School sent the following to the County Commissioners:

To the County Commissioners,

Trego School is interested in meeting the broader educational needs of our community, provided that we can do so without compromising the safety and quality of education for our students. We have realized that we have a layout that would make hosting a community library relatively easy to do without compromising student safety.

As such, the school board has requested that I pass along the attached proposed interlocal agreement, to open the Trego School Library as a school-community library. There’s a little remodeling needed for safety purposes: specifically, we need to add a set of doors and restore a receptionist window to our office. We are not asking the county to pay for that. 

We anticipate minimal expenses to the county; we already have office staff present 9-5, who will be able to check out books to visitors, we have a volunteer who returns books to their shelves, and the school already maintains heat/light/internet/insurance for the space. We do not foresee the need for a librarian (we handle being too small to afford one via membership in Montana Small Schools Alliance). We would expect the county to cover adding our library materials to the existing county library catalog, and we would need at least some training for our staff to be able to do so. 

As stated, we believe that a joint library can be created with minimal expense, which would serve the community as a whole for approximately 30 hours a week, decrease the commute to the nearest library and increase the availability of library resources to our community. 

Thank you for your consideration,

What is a school community library? A school community library is essentially both a school library and a public library. It effectively places a public library on school grounds, often within the school itself.

For Trego, the library would be in a separate wing of the school, so that it can be accessed without allowing access to the classrooms.

What safety considerations are there for school/community libraries? School Community Libraries essentially invite the unvetted public onto school grounds during the school day. As such, it’s essential that they not also have classroom access. Additionally, it may be reasonable to reserve times for the library to be used exclusively by students.

What benefits does a school/community library offer to the students? It expands the potential library catalog, beyond what the school can afford. Furthermore, students with high reading levels will have access to books at greater difficulty levels. Additionally, it allows students to access interlibrary loan and additional public library resources. It also has the potential to host a summer reading program, which would be beneficial to students. Book clubs and other programing is also a beneficial option.

How can the school afford this? Essentially, the school already is. The library exists and already has costs for heating and lighting. The school would not be hiring additional staff, but would be taking advantage of existing employees and volunteers to handle checkouts and returns. The school would share library costs with the county; it’s unlikely to result in much savings, but it won’t increase costs either.