The initial literacy center is at Glen City School, where students used the space for the first time Monday.
"It's bigger," said Esmeralda Flores, 9, a fourth-grader who likes to read chapter books. "There's lots of books, and we've got new computers. And there's couches and tables."
The updated library, fashioned out of two former classrooms, features three large monitors, a bank of 16 computers, and tables resembling puzzle pieces that can be pushed together or pulled apart. Sitting alongside them are shelves of books that wouldn't be out of place in a library decades ago.
"The monitors can stream videos, news media, anything world-affecting," said Helen Davis, Glen City's library assistant. "In the seating nooks, they can sit and do a project with their teacher or some silent reading. And they can use the computers to look up books."
The Santa Paula Unified School District spent about $500,000 to create the literacy center at Glen City, as well as to modernize two other classrooms, said Superintendent Alfonso Gamino.
The district hopes to convert more of its libraries into literacy centers over the next several years, but the issue will be funding, Gamino said. Some of that funding could come from a $39.6 million bond measure that the district will put before voters in June, he said.
"It may take time, and we may not get to all of them," Gamino said. "But we're optimistic that we'll get the bond approved. We're trying to modernize all our facilities. We feel that all our kids deserve these 21st-century facilities."
The literacy centers fit into a nationwide trend to convert school libraries into spaces where students can actively take advantage of the latest technology, but also sit quietly and read traditional books. Along those lines, Glen City Principal Alice Pacheco is considering converting another classroom into a makerspace -- a room where students can create anything from videos to robots. The space would have iPads, but also Legos and Lincoln Logs, she said.
"We want to give children the opportunity to create," Pacheco said. "It will be more of place where they'll have general guidelines but can create what they want to. They don't have to follow our model."
Glen City's literacy center is still filled with traditional print books, but the district is planning to invest in more e-books, too, Gamino said.
"We want to have a nice balance," Gamino said. "We want hard copy books, but we also want to be online. It can't be all shelves filled with hard copy books. We want to be adaptable."
The literacy center also will allow students to be involved in different activities at the same time. And it can be used as a meeting room, where parents come after school to help children with their homework or use the computers.
"It's an extension of their learning day," said Assistant Principal Ana Rodriguez. "They can come do research or come with their parents. It becomes a family space."
2016 Ventura County Star (Camarillo, Calif.), distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
