School Board honors teachers with 1,000-book classrooms

The District 54 School Board plans to visit five teachers across the district in November to praise them for filling their classroom libraries with more than 1,000 books.

A significant body of research states that the more children read the better readers they become. Our goal in District 54 is for every classroom to have 1,000 books in order to meet the wide range of abilities and interests of the children. With this in mind, we embarked on a campaign in 2006 to fill the bookshelves in each of our rooms. With new teachers joining our district every year, our commitment is ongoing.

Although District 54's SuperKids: Powered by Books Committee raises funds to buy books for teachers, many of the teachers being recognized have assembled these large classroom libraries on their own - by purchasing the books themselves, scouring garage sales, placing Scholastic book orders, receiving some as gifts, etc.

These teachers listed below, join 279 other District 54 teachers who had previously been recognized for achieving this milestone - for a grand total of 284 teachers.

• Alyssa Brown from MacArthur International Spanish Academy

• Joan Mason from the Early Learning Center

• Heather Fantauzzo from Churchill Elementary School

• Heather Formas from Churchill Elementary School

• Kathryn Cotteleer from Churchill Elementary School