April 12, 2012 - Consolidated Communications recently awarded an $876 grant to the Arthur Elementary School from the company’s Earning for Learning (EFL) program for a bilingual lending library.
The library will include 49 bilingual books available for students in the Arcola Little Riders PreK program. There are 40 students, aged 3 to 5, in the program now and more than half are English language learners whose primary language is Spanish. These books feature the text written in both languages on each page, allowing all students the opportunity to read the books.
The grant request was made by teacher Tammy Smith, who said the goal is to create a well developed lending library where the PreK students can make a book selection without the fear of it being written in the wrong language.
“Our superintendent, Jean Chrostoski, has a goal to offer more early childhood learning opportunities to our students. This bilingual lending library supports these efforts by connecting the child to home and school by offering books written in both Spanish and English,” said Cindy Mills, Special Services Administrator.
“We’re excited to provide the funding for this bilingual lending library at Arcola Elementary School,” said Laura ZuHone, of Consolidated Communications. “Our Earning for Learning grants are designed to support education in the communities we serve, and this project will provide additional reading opportunities for these students.”
The EFL program has donated more than $3 million to local schools to use for teacher grants, computer and software purchase and other items and projects not included in typical school budgets. Participating schools are invited to submit a grant application to request funds for a specific financial need. Grants are approved based on the description of need and funds available at the time of the request.