A new school year has brought many welcomed additions to The Wolf School- new students, new families, new staff members, and our much anticipated new library! Gaining this valuable resource back was one of the main goals of our Growing Our Vision Campaign We are particularly grateful for a bequest from the estate of Helen C. S. Sloane, mother to founding parent Mary Sloane and an extraordinary champion of education. Her visionary gift transformed a rolling cart of books acting as a stand-in library last year, to a beautiful room where books are already lining the shelves! Regaining our library was a priority because a library is so much more to students, especially Complex Learners, than just a room. It is an invitation to grow, where students who previously struggled, now have the opportunity to find the magic in reading. It is a place to discover. As our Teaching Assistant (TA) and library coordinator Maureen Quinn says, it’s a space that “lets students know that if they have a question, they have the power and the resources to get answers.”

But above all, it is a necessary space for our students’ education.  As a TA at The Wolf School, Maureen knows firsthand that having a library “is imperative to support literacy that is happening in the classroom.” The benefits of this academic support will also continue for our students outside of the classroom with a love of reading being encouraged in a comfortable and safe space.

The new space includes new shelving filled with books appropriate for our K-8 students, board games, DVDs, computers, a conference table (with more seating on the way), and a Smart TV that will allow our staff and students the ability to watch movies or even Skype! Plans to continue improving this new space include updating our checkout system to an automation system. This will not only make it easier to check out books for our students but also easier to track and add additional books in the future.

With books coming both from donations as well as from purchases with scholastic credit dollars (thanks to our Book Fairs through the Wolf School Parent Organization!) we have been able to collect such a great variety that we’ve actually been able to donate duplicate books to “Books are Wings,” an organization Maureen volunteers with.  As Wolf students enter the space for the first time, one of the most frequent phrases Maureen hears from our students is “this is so cool!” Thanks to the generous donations that made this room possible we know that for years to come Wolf students will continue to find this space, so cool.