Kathryn Bates March 23, 2014Hopkins Elementary School1315 Dickens Rd.Lilburn, GA 30047770-564-2661

Laura Bush Foundation For America’s Librariesc/o Community Foundation for the National Capitol Region1201 15th Street NW, Suite 420Washington, D.C. 20005

To the Members of the Laura Bush Foundation:

I am writing on behalf of Hopkins Elementary School in Lilburn, GA, a part of Gwinnett County Public Schools. We are a large and diverse Title I School. Through surveys done via our media center and Title I Parent Center we see that our families and parents want to be involved more fully in the reading progression of their children’s learning but like many of their children they primarily speak a language other than English at home. These parents are often times even working 2 or 3 jobs just to put food on the table and books are considered a luxury. This is why our students love coming to the library because they are so hungry for stories and do not have them at home. I am proposing a project that will take place over the next school year with community, parent, and school involvement to diversify the collection of bilingual books in our school’s media center.

I hope that together we can work to increase student literacy in our community of hardworking families.

Sincerely,Kathryn Bates

Hopkins Elementary School is located in Lilburn, GA in the Gwinnett County

Public School System. The system is the largest in the state of Georgia with 123 schools

and 161,000 students countywide. At 1, 846 students it is the largest elementary school in

the state of Georgia. Two hundred faculty and staff are employed at this K-5 school with

around 90 of those regular education homeroom teachers. The media center is run by one

media specialists and two media clerks. The Title One Parent Center is run by a three

person staff. As for the student population of the school, 94% receive free and reduced

lunch, which qualifies Hopkins Elementary as a Title I School. Of the 1,846 students a

third of the students are qualified as ESOL, which includes first languages such as

Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Romanian, Farsi, and many others.

The library hosts approximately 10,000 books but only 58 of those books are

classified as bilingual and all of them are Spanish and English. This is a gross

misrepresentation of the ESOL families at our school. As noted above, not all of the

ESOL students and families are Spanish speaking. All the other families that are ESOL

but not Spanish speaking have no books that they can sit down and read with their

children. Not to mention that with these bilingual books not only could non-native

English speakers read to their children but they could learn and improve their English

speaking skills too.

Here are the goals for our project:

To increase the number of bilingual books in our Media Center

To increase the number of bilingual books in our Media Center that

represent the languages spoken other than Spanish

To advertise to parents and families that these books are available for

checkout in our media center

To increase parent involvement in their child’s reading at home

Our first step in this project will be to work with our vendors (including but not

limited to Follett, Titlewave, Rainbow Books, Bound to Stay Bound, etc.) to identify

quality books that would appeal to our elementary school readers that are also bilingual.

A purchase order would then be written up and submitted to our Media and Technology

committee, consisting of parents, teachers, our media specialist and administrators for

approval. Once the order was approved the books would be ordered. Once they arrived,

they would be processed and entered into the system. Once they are available, we would

advertise via our parent center, school newsletters, school website, and media center

website that these books are available for families and students to read together and

increase the amount of reading time at home. We would then take circulation statistics in

December and May to see the circulation of these books. Also in December and May we

would follow up with the students and families who checked out the books to interview

them and see how the books changed their family reading time together. At the end of the

year we would take this information and the Media Technology committee would decide

whether the number of bilingual books was sufficient for our needs or if we needed to

reapply for funds to support the purchase of more books. This funding would be applied

for using grants, sales money from book fairs, and PTA fund support.

To kick off this particular project we are asking for $3,000. This money would go

directly to purchasing the bilingual books; no money would go to DVDs, videos,

technology, or other supplies. Every dollar would go toward the purchase of bilingual

books to support increased literacy at home for parents and children that are classified as

ESOL.

It was Emilie Buchwald that observed, “Children are made readers on the laps of

their parents.” As much reading as they will do in school, the most valuable and

memorable reading will be that which they do at home with a parent. For the parent, there

is a sense of pride and happiness when they can share the few free moments that they

have from working two jobs to share a story with their child at bedtime. Reading should

not be a privilege denied because of language. It should be a necessity no matter what

language. With the purchase of these bilingual books, not only are these parents giving

the gift of reading to their child, they are both learning English which will empower them

both. I hope on behalf of our community that you will help us give this gift that will

continue to be given over and over again.