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ECSD Names School Library Principal Advocate And Librarian Of The Year

The Escambia County School District has announced this year’s School Library Principal Advocate of the Year and School Librarian of the Year.

The ECSD School Library Principal Advocate of the Year is Ernest Ward Middle School Principal Nancy Gindl-Perry. The ECSD School Library Principal Advocate of the Year is Lincoln Park Elementary School Media Specialist Laura Hobbs. They both received a plaque to display in their office or their school’s library.

Nancy Gindl-Perry

“Principals such as Mrs. Perry are important to the success of libraries because they control the factors that determine the quality of the school library program,” EWMS librarian Sherri Stallworth said in her nomination submission.

“As we know, effective library programs require budgeting, support, and promotion. For example, it takes money to staff and build a current and adequate collection size. Mrs. Perry continues to consider the needs of her library every year as she generously appropriates funds to provide qualified staff and grow the size of our collection. Last summer, Mrs. Perry participated in a major overhaul of my library. She physically worked with a team including the assistant principal, two teachers, a paraprofessional, and myself to revamp the library. We worked together for two weeks to weed books, rearrange bookcases, and genrefy books,” Stallworth aid.  (Genrefy books is to organize them by genre, or subject, to help students find interesting books.)

Perry allowed over $4,500 in district and Title I funds to purchase new library books, and she found a way for students to  visit the library during the pandemic.

“Mrs. Perry graciously approved a schedule that allowed teachers of elective courses to work within Covid guidelines to bring their students to the library twice a month. Finally, Mrs. Perry provided student assistants to aid in the duties that are required to keep the library accessible throughout the day,” Stallworth said.

Laura Hobbs

“My focus has always been to create lifelong readers. I believe children should develop as readers for both information and pleasure. In developing our curriculum, I target Library Media standards in five areas under a general theme: Library Skills, Literature, Digital Citizenship, Research and Makerspaces. As the year progresses, students develop literacy skills, face literacy challenges, and earn rewards,” Hobbs said.

“I’ve worked to transform Lincoln Park Elementary School’s library from a book and technology poor site to a well-stocked library with an updated collection and accessible technology. We currently have twelve desktops, a self-check-in station and two catalog search stations. Through grants, we obtained nine iPads, green screen technology for projects and our morning news program, extra seating, hundreds of books by level or topics, as well as Makerspace materials like Ozobot coding robots, engineering kits, and more. Materials that didn’t support our curriculum were weeded and replaced with more appropriate books. Our collection increased and is more relevant to our population’s needs, and the physical library is more usable and modern. To promote at-home literacy, I host an annual book fair, and normally maintain a “free books” shelf. This year the book fair was digital, and MyOn was promoted for at-home reading. I also coordinated a book giveaway for students through the Studer Group,” she continued.

Pictured top: School Library Principal Advocate of the Year Award winner Nancy Gindl-Perry (left), principal of Ernest Ward Middle School with EWMS librarian Sherri Stallworth. Pictured below: School Librarian of the Year Award winner, Laura Hobbs (left), and Lincoln Park Elementary School’s Principal Cassandra Smith.