MHS librarian Mia Gittlen was awarded $5,000 by the Milpitas Community Education Foundation (MCEF) during a board meeting on Oct. 28. Much of the money will go toward updating the library’s book collection and transforming the library into a digital learning space where students can borrow resources, Gittlen said.
Gittlen expects over half of the grant money will go towards updating the library’s books, she said. She is focused on acquiring books and filling in gaps in the library’s collection, as well as updating resources for the College and Career Center, she added. She wants to reach out and survey students to find out what changes would have the greatest impact, she said.
“I also realized that I don’t want to just limit it to books, that it also is really important to tie that to reasons for students to be looking at and checking out books,” Gittlen added. “So building programs around that will then hopefully lead to books being circulated.”
The goal of MCEF’s grants is to support staff within the Milpitas school district, MCEF co-president Amin Fazal said. Participants who request grants must meet MUSD priorities, he added.
“I feel like a library is important for students to be able to go and be able to check out books, or even not check out, (but) be able to read books,” Fazal said. “I know we are in a technology era where things are moving so fast, but we still need to appreciate the library and be able to do that stuff. The young generation needs to be able to go to the library.”
With the extra funding, Gittlen hopes to fund more programs and activities, such as author visits and club events, she said. She also aims to have more equipment available for students to use, she added.
In the library’s effort to transform into more of a digital learning space, Gittlen wants to buy “multimedia and STEM equipment such as microphones for podcasting and physical computing supplies, etc. to have more of a lending library of resources available,” she said.
The hope is that the equipment becomes a resource for the whole school, where students can check out the equipment individually, or teachers can check out equipment and have them in their classrooms to work on specific projects, Gittlen said.
“It just builds the kind of opportunities and resources that elevate literacy in all its different forms across our campus,” Gittlen said. “A lot of the resources that we’ve been talking about are also future-ready, skills aligned, and so giving students the opportunity to use those kinds of things and work with audio, video, and more computer science, etc. will then catapult our students.”
MCEF wants to make sure that the grant is able to benefit the most students as possible, co-president Swati Shah said. After receiving grant applications from MUSD employees, MCEF looks at whether the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) can take care of the funding, how many students are going to be impacted, and how it would benefit the teachers before voting for grant recipients, Shah said.
“So we gave the majority — because we funded $11,000 (total) — we funded $5,000 (to MHS) because this is the biggest high school, and we want the high schoolers to have that because I think it’s more digitalized,” she said. “Everything is being digitalized, so if they have more ebooks they can read, and then also inviting the authors, making them (students) more interested in reading.”
Every year, MCEF has $10,000 that they give out in grants to teachers and staff who apply, Shah said. The application is easy, and the foundation just wants to spread the word to teachers, she added.
“We fundraise for the benefits of the children, and then the classrooms and the schools, the teacher needs to apply – and not only teachers, anyone,” Shah said. “If you are an MUSD employee, you can apply for the grant.”
Generally, students have reacted positively to developments in the library last year, Gittlen said. Engagement with the library has been increasing as more students check out books and utilize the space in different ways, she said. Gittlen looks forward to seeing the library grow, she added.
“That’s really the piece of this project that I’m most excited about – is us having the funds available to really realize what students are looking for,” Gittlen said. “Come visit the library and make suggestions.”
