Our district recently underwent a curriculum review of our English Language Arts curriculum. After choosing new resources to use in the classroom our next step was to make room for all the new materials that would be arriving in the Fall. Instead of just throwing books away, we were compelled to find an alternative in which the books could be reused. Some companies buy back used textbooks, but the cost to ship them can be very expensive. After some searching we learned about a program called Books for Africa. www.booksforafrica.org

 

Once we confirmed the donation process, our staff got busy packing up boxes of the books. Teachers and students brought their used materials to the stage and then over 3000 books were packed into over 180 boxes. Another group of custodial and transportation staff helped to load up the U-Haul on August 9th to make the trip to St. Paul, Minnesota to deliver the donation.

 

This project supports two of our district’s core values of collaboration and equity. We wanted to give back to others who may have a need and our staff worked together to make it happen. I’m glad the great stories in those books will continue to be read and enjoyed by students in another part of the world.