Access Books Donated Thousands of Books to Make the On-Campus Library Possible
For 20 years, Cypress Elementary School has been missing something on its campus that most other schools take for granted—a school library. All that changes this year, as Cypress is set to open its own on-campus library.
Cypress has dedicated an otherwise empty classroom to its new library, which will feature a media center for student research; a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) center; comfortable, student-friendly furniture; and thousands of books donated by Access Books and Santa Monica Books for Kids.
“Our students love to read,” said Cypress Principal Ernesto M. Calles. “And for several years, we’ve had access to an amazing library not far from our school.”
Calles is referring to the Highland Sam J. Racadio Library & Environmental Learning Center, which is part of the San Bernardino County Library system and serves the City of Highland. Every Cypress student had free access to the Center’s library books, and teachers could take their students off campus to use the library. However, Calles said that it was challenging trying to take advantage of the offer due to the logistics involved.
“While we are grateful to the Center, we know our students and staff will benefit greatly from having their own, student-focused library on campus and available to them during all school hours,” Calles said. “And that wouldn’t be possible without the amazing generosity of Access Books and Books for Kids.”
Access Books is a nonprofit dedicated to providing books to public schools and community libraries where the majority of students live at or below the poverty line. Access Books also partners with schools to revitalize their libraries with colorful murals and decorations that make elementary school libraries a place children want to be.
Access Books and Santa Monica Books for Kids donated thousands of books to Cypress Elementary over the course of several separate donations. Books for Kids built classroom libraries for students through the donation of about 3,500 books and the installation of one to two bookshelves per classroom. The bookshelves, along with additional book donations for the dedicated school library were provided by Access Books.
“We received books for each student to take home,” Calles said. “Then we received another donation for each classroom to have new books and new bookshelves.” All of that was in addition to the books specifically for the classroom-turned-school-library.
“Access Books has truly made a difference for our students and their families for years to come,” Calles added.
Cypress Elementary School is part of the San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) and serves students in grades TK–6. Cypress is located at 26825 Cypress Street in Highland.
