The document proposes updates to the media center facility at Louisville Academy. It recommends building an additional 12x10 production room to accommodate the 5th grade morning news program. It also suggests brightening the media center with paint, colorful tables and chairs with a fish theme, and sea-themed carpets and rugs. New camera equipment is recommended for the production room. The proposed changes aim to create a warmer, brighter environment for students.

1. Louisville Academy Media Facility Plan By: Patrice Toulson Administration of the Instructional Media Program Instructor: Dr. Judi Repman Fall 2008

2. Table of Contents School Data Mission, Vision and Beliefs Media Center Data Media Center Policies Media Center Facility Use Existing Media Center Layout Pictures of Facility Surveys of Students and Teachers Recommended Changes Remodeled Media Center Layout Conclusion

3. School Data Louisville Academy was founded in 1796 as a college preparatory school for the University of Georgia. In 1971, Louisville Academy became an elementary school. It has been fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1970. Louisville Academy has been a Title I Distinguished School since 2002.

4. School Data (Con’t) The school has made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) continuously since 1999-2000 school year. The school consists of several buildings totaling 55,667 sq. ft. The faculty and staff consists of: 2 administrators, 45 fully certified teachers, 19 paraprofessionals, 4 bus drivers, 5 food service personnel, 5 custodians, and 4 volunteer (grandparents).

5. School Data (Con’t) Currently, Louisville Academy has 588 students -425 are Black/African American - 133 are white/Caucasian - 5 Asian - 15 Multi-Racial -5 Hispanic - 64 Special Education Students

6. Motto, Mission, and Vision County Motto : Jefferson County: Six Schools: One Mission: Every Child, Every Day County Vision : A unified community ensuring that EVERY CHILD will graduate from high school post secondary ready. County Mission : To partner with the community in creating a learning culture that challenges, supports, and ensures the success of EVERY CHILD EVERY DAY.

7. Beliefs: We believe in a learning culture that is: Challenging – High expectations, rigor, and relevance Committed – Support, Guidance, “can do” attitude, and a sense of urgency Creative – Individuality; active, engaged learning, and technology for the workplace Caring – Building and nurturing relationships among students, staff, and the community Connected – Good communication at all levels Consistent – Aligned, guaranteed curriculum and pervasive, professional practices

8. Media Center Data The C.H. Cofer Library was constructed in 1986 and has 2,904 sq. feet. It contains an office, storage/electrical room, electrical distribution/media production room, workroom, audio/visual storage, conference, 3 bathrooms and two exits. The media center currently has 20,971 pieces of material available for use. It has a total of 10 computers for students to use. It is open at 8:15 a.m. and closes at 2:45 p.m. The media center has a media specialist and a paraprofessional.

9. Policies of the Media Center Policy I. A plan for a flexible scheduled media center access for students and teachers in groups or as individuals simultaneously throughout each instructional day. Accessibility shall refer to the facility, the staff, and the resources and shall be based on instructional need. Policy II Collaborative planning that includes joint determination by media specialist and teachers to ensure use of media center resources and services that support on-going classroom instruction and implementation of the state- adopted curriculum. Policy information attained from the Georgia School Boards Association website for Jefferson County at www.gsba.com/esolutions/ePolicy/about.html

10. Facility Use The media center is available to students from 8:15 – 2:45 Monday through Friday. Teachers must give at least a day’s notice before they bring an entire class to the media center. There is a sign up sheet in the media center. Outside individuals can check out material from the media center but they don’t have these requests often. Teachers must stay with their students when bringing an entire class or small group to the media center. Students may visit the media center individually with an appropriate pass. The media center is available to outside groups. Teachers and staff have no limitations on how many books they can check out or when they have to be returned.

11. Facility Use Students, teachers and staff are expected to pay for lost or damaged books/equipment. No overdue book fines apply to students, teachers or staff. Technology Equipment Use (LCD Projectors, Digital Camera, Laminator, Die Cuts, etc. Faculty meetings are held in the media center. The media center paraprofessional is responsible for all lamination requests. Book Check-In/Check Out Accelerated Reader Program Book Fair at least once a year Readers Are Leaders for American Education Week Popcorn/Video parties for AR Program

12. Facility Use Recommended Changes I would like to see Louisville Academy add a time each week for the kids to come into the library for story time. This was a desire mentioned by the teachers and students in the survey. The hours of operation should be expanded from 8:00 – 3:00. Students should be able to return a book without taking a test if they discover they are not interested in the book they chose. Making them take a test on every book may cause them to lose interest in reading.

15. Pictures of Facility This is the handicapped accessible entrance into the C.H. Cofer Memorial Library at Louisville Academy. The library is a separate entity from the other buildings and is easily accessible to all students.

16. “ Virtual Tour” We will be taking a “virtual tour” of the Louisville Academy Library. We will begin at the entrance. We will walk towards the left and will work our way around back to the entrance. Then, we will look at the center of the library.

17. This is the view of the library standing at the door as you come in. You can see the circulation desk, tables, book shelves, computer, dictionary and rolling book shelf. This is a picture of the magazine section with a portrait of Mr. C.H. Cofer, the man who the library is named for.

18. Another view of the magazine section This is an aquarium in the library. The students love it!

19. Book Shelves – Notice the mural on the wall. This was painted by the art teacher at Louisville Academy. This is another view of the book shelves with the cushioned chairs.

20. Audio Visual/Storage Room and Conference Room Entrances Audio/Visual Storage – printers, ink cartridges, keyboards, binders, etc.

21. Conference Room - It has six computers and six printers. One of the printers is a photograph printer. They also use this room for testing individuals.

22. Conference Room – It has a shelf above the computers that holds binders of information.

23. Reference Section Area – file cabinet, encyclopedias, globe, etc.

24. This is the hallway going out of a 2 nd exit. Within this hall are two bathrooms, a boys and a girls, and a fire extinguisher. There are book shelves on the wall. There is a computer for the students/faculty to use at the end of the book shelf.

25. This is another view of the book shelves on the back wall. A computer is at each end. A television/DVD/VCR is between the shelves. This is a view of the book shelves on the back wall. A computer is at one end and a dictionary is at the other end for students/faculty to use.

26. There is a cushioned seat for students to use while reading on the back wall. There are more book shelves on the back wall. Each bookshelf has display books open on top of the shelves. Another computer is seen in the right bottom corner.

27. Two more computers and a printer are accessible for students and faculty to use. This is the entrance to the Electrical Distribution and Media Production room. This is where the 5th graders do a television production in the mornings and just do not have enough room to do it accurately.

28. Electrical Distribution/Media Production Room- It houses magazines, videos, table and chairs, etc. Electrical Distribution/Media Production Room- Video Area

29. Electrical Distribution/Media Production Room- It also houses TV/VCR/DVD players, computer server, butcher paper, etc. Electrical Distribution/Media Production Room- This is the area where the 5th graders stand to do their morning production called the LA Times.

30. Entrance to the office - It houses two desks and the entrance to a restroom and a storage/electrical room. The paraprofessional’s desk in the office along with a book shelf

31. This is the media specialist’s desk in the office. This is the entrances to the Storage/Electrical Room and the restroom from within the office

32. First Door to the right as you come into the library from the entrance. This is the Workroom. It consists of the laminating machine, die cut, resource manuals, etc.

33. Workroom: Refrigerator, paper cutter, laminating machine, die cuts, boxes, etc. There are probably some boxes that could be thrown away.

34. The circulation desk - Wires on the circulation desk still seem a little hazardous! It looks like they need to stick the wires in the protector better and tape the loose wires down to the desk.

35. The is a double sided cubicle that holds books and a chair for students to sit and read. This is a view of the tables and some of the book shelves. The blue shelf in the middle is a rolling book shelf.

36. Survey of Students Positive Comments: Likes the magazines Good Books – Mr. Pretty and Tabby Likes the books that they have They get to check out nice books. The books are good to read and neat on the shelves – not messed up. The books and the fish tank are good. The library has her favorite books – Amelia Bodilia and she likes the trees that are planted on the walls (the mural). It has good fiction and non-fiction books and he loves the fish tank. “The fish tank gives you a fresh feeling inside – gives off a tropical feeling. The library has a nice smell.”

37. Survey of Students Desired Changes: Need to have more books Book shelves should be moved around. Get a great big fish tank that goes to the ceiling and turn it into a salt water tank with fish, sharks, etc. Could add bean bag chairs that you could sit on and read by yourself if you were given extra reading time by a teacher. Students would like to go to the library for story time. The floor needs to look like a gigantic fish tank and add plastic reptiles like turtles, lizards and dragons for decoration. Have different scenes in the library such as jungles, oceans, etc. Every now and then they could put fake vines and trees over the shelves that you could play with. Many students thought it was fine just the way it was.

38. Survey of Faculty Positive Comments The media center is available to all students throughout the day. They help children select books for their reading levels. They are knowledgeable of what is being taught in the classroom. They help provide books for the teachers to use in the classrooms that goes with the curriculum. They help small groups with research. They help the 5 th grade students with a daily morning news television program called LA Times. The library is neat, clean and well organized. The 5th grade students are allowed to shelve books. The media center will send the teachers books to read to their class and it saves the teachers time.

39. Survey of Faculty Positive Comments: They like the fact that students use it frequently for research and they receive help as needed from the media specialist and her assistant. It has a wide variety of books and magazines; the media specialist assist them in checking out books. They enjoy LA Times. - There is a wide variety of resources that is available to the students as well as the staff. The media specialist gathers books for the teachers when they are beginning new units. The media specialist assist the students in completing research. The media specialist also monitors the students when they are checking out books so that they are successful on their level and are being challenged.

40. Survey of Faculty Desired Changes Many would like for the media center to offer things like story time, where students go and sit while being read a story. It would provide more read aloud time for them, and would permit more opportunity for library/research materials to be taught . If a student gets a book and decides they don’t like it, the media center will not let them get another book until they take a test on the book they already have – would like for this to be changed. Some would like for the media center personnel to be more personal with EVERYONE. Feels the students ought to be able to check out books more often (only every other day and one book). It would be nice if they could check out one AR book and one that is not. They feel students could help and do more jobs. They also feel the media specialist should teach the students the information that is tested on the standardized test about the media center. More teachers should use the resources provided by the media center.

41. Survey of the Media Specialist She enjoys working with all the students. She would like a designated production room. She said they don’t have enough room where they do the LA Times now.

42. Recommended Updates The media specialist stated that she did not have enough room to do the LA Times with the 5 th graders because there is so much in the media production room. I think we need to build another room in the media center that is solely for the morning production. I talked to a general contractor, Merv Unruh, in the county where this media center is. He came up with a price of $18,000 to build a 12x10 room at $150.00/sq. foot. This will include materials and labor.

43. Recommended Updates New camera equipment is needed for the production room. EZ Prompter www.easlightingllc.com Yours for Only $795 Chroma-Key Green Backdrop www.eefx.com $ 769.30 XH A1High Definition Camcorder $ 3,999.00 www.usa.canon.com

44. Recommended Updates I feel that the media center needs to be brightened up because it is an elementary media center. If we brighten up the media center, I feel that it will have a more welcoming feeling to it. The media center at Louisville Academy is 2904 sq. ft. I priced paint at Walmart and I would need 15 gallons of paint to be able to put two coats on the walls. The price per gallon is $ 14.94 which would total $ 224.10 plus 7% tax = $ 239.79. .

45. Recommended Updates I also feel that we need to decorate the media center with colorful tables, chairs, and rugs. An aquarium is already in the media center and the children love it. I think we could use the fish theme throughout the media center with our decorations. Make a Splash! Table and Chairs by Bubbles Decor Hand-Painted Table and Two Chairs Table measures: 32"W x 25"D x 22 5/8"H. Made of solid pine. Has rounded corners and smooth edges. Price: $645.00 (USD) We will purchase three of these sets @ $645.00 totaling $1935.00. www.skimbaco.com

46. Recommended Updates Sea Hunt Classroom Carpet Price$129.99 3 carpets at $129.99 =$389.97 www.littlepeoplescove.com Sea Scotch Hopscotch Rug Price$39.99 – 1 carpet @ $39.99 = $ 39.99 www.littlepeoplescove.com

47. Recommended Updates 2 Tone Dolphin Lounger Price $149.99 You Save 11% Orca Lounger Price$159.99 - You Save 10% Kidstation Ergonomic Single Computer Desk and Chair Price$199.95 - You Save 13% We would purchase 2 @ $ 199.95 = $ 399.90 www.littlepeoplescove.com

49. Conclusion The media center at Louisville Academy is very neat, clean, and well organized. I feel that it could be a “warmer” environment if a few of these “colorful” changes could take place. They have a media specialist and paraprofessional that are very helpful to the students and collaborate well with the faculty and staff.