Blue Eagle Academy’s Library Renovation

September 2018

Over the summer BEA received a brand-new library stocked with books donated from all over the Clover community. Sherri Ciurlik, a member of the CSD Board of Trustees, said even though she got the project started, it was a team effort to complete.

“It is very important to stress the entire group of people that worked to make this a reality,” said Ciurlik. “A couple of people are no longer with CSD but that doesn’t lessen their contributions.”

During the renovation period, Ciurlik and 11th grade student, Clause Prikker, began removing all the unwanted materials in the library space, including academic journals from as far back as the 1960s. The maintenance team then made the space usable by removing shelving, painting walls, changing blinds, and moving furniture.

From there Ciurlik said a plea was sent out for new and gently used books.

The District Teacher of the Year at the time, Jennifer Dundr, turned this mission into a goal for the teacher forum. Books were donated with personal messages from teachers and administrators in various Clover schools.

“But it didn’t stop there, BEA teachers posted on social media asking for books, schools donated books retired from their library, people in the community sent books, they came in from all over,” said Ciurlik.

After everything was received into the space, BEA receptionist Linda Dunlap got to work organizing all of the books and materials collected over the previous year and during summer break.

Ciurlik said even the locals got involved in the project. “Once it was out there, we got community members such as Angie Clinton and Pam Whitley donating time, effort and talent to paint, organize books and whatever else was needed,” she said.

The previous English Language Arts Instructional Supervisor, Anne Witte, finalized the library by creating a variety of activity areas for the students at BEA.

Ciurlik said, “She gets the credit for turning it from a room with books into a usable, welcoming, functioning library.”

According to Krista Blazek, a middle school language arts teacher at BEA, the library offers games, blackout poetry, and more to the students in addition to a wide variety of the books.

“It’s their space. All we ask is that they be respectful of it,” she said.

Blazek, who has been at BEA for the last 13 years, described life before the library where she purchased books herself or borrowed them from the middle school for children who loved to read.

“Before we would have to just beg, borrow, and steal from each other,” said Blazek. “But now we don’t have to do that because we can just bring them [the students] down here and they can find something.”

According to Blazek, the books in the library are divided up by genre for readers to easily identify what they want to check out.

Donald Williams, a sixth-grade student at BEA, said he enjoys reading an array of books at the library. “I usually like graphic novels, mysteries, and those scary kind of books,” he said.

Another unique feature of the BEA library is that it doesn’t operate on a normal check-out system like other Clover schools. “We get to do all this stuff on the honor system,” said Blazek. “Because everything was donated, it’s kind of like if a kid comes in and says, ‘I really love this book; I wanna keep it.’ Then OK, keep it.”

Blazek said Ciurlik came to the BEA teachers and asked what the most important aspect of the library was to them and their students.

“When Sherri was like, ‘Ok, what kind of space do you guys want,’ our big thing with our kids is comfortable,” she said. “Let them be somewhere they can kick back and...”

“Relax,” Williams finished the sentence for her.

The library has been equipped with various cozy little nooks for students to curl up with a good book or play games with friends.

Williams said he enjoys the time he gets to spend in the library for a variety of reasons. “Well, I like the space, I like that it’s quiet, and I like these,” he said, picking up a beanbag chair and plopping down into it.

According to Blazek there had been no follow-through on previous talks about revamping the library.

“Sherri was just not going to let that happen,” said Blazek. “And I have to give Sherri so much credit because she just took the ball and ran with it. She made it amazing.”

“The response from teachers and students has been amazing,” said Ciurlik.“I am lucky in that I received the thank you notes, verbal thanks and actually get to see the library being used. But honestly, the entire Clover community made this happen. It really shows what happens when we work together.”