Washington Elementary School holds first book fair in years

By CHARITY SMITH

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Bessemer - Students at Washington Elementary School in Bessemer excitedly bought books throughout the week at the first book fair the school has held in years, according to school principal Mark Switzer.

"I think it is really good," Switzer said. "We haven't had a book fair in years. So we are kind of arcing towards a little normalcy."

Switzer said that the book fair was extremely well attended and "incredibly busy." He said the kids seemed to really enjoy being able to purchase books, although the tax threw a lot of them off.

"Tax throws kids a curve. We have some that were under the impression that there is no sales tax and just came in with the exact amount like $17.99," he said.

As part of hosting a book fair Scholastic allowed the children's purchases to be rounded up to the nearest dollar. Switzer said that rounding up to the nearest dollar made it easier for both the students and the staff to calculate their totals. The additional funds collected will allow the school to purchase books from the company for the various classroom libraries. Switzer said the total raised through the event was $4,007. Of that, $1,890 will be available to the school to purchase books. He said that the teachers will be selecting the books for their classrooms.

Switzer said the book fair hasn't come out to the area very often because "it is hard to get things up here." However, he said he was contacted by a Scholastic representative and started planning the book fair a month ago.

"I was like yeah let's do it promote literacy and get books in kids hands," said Switzer.

Switzer said that the staff put a lot of time into planning it and that even some of the children helped to prepare the room for the event.

According to Switzer, Alexis Headley's fifth grade students, spent some time cleaning the room out so that the books and other items could be set up in the third floor vacant classroom.

The book fair started on Monday and was scheduled through Thursday. However due to the inclimeate weather on Wednesday school was canceled along with the book fair.

Switzer said it was unfortunate that they weren't able to open the book fair on Wednesday. The book fair did continue on Thursday and was open after school for an hour that day. Students were also able to purchase books on Friday morning.

Switzer credited his staff and in particular Terri Triggiano, teacher aid and first grade teacher Jonelle France as having been a huge help with the event. "It's so exciting to see kids so excited about books," France said.

As the school does not have a parent teacher association, this year the event was ran by staff who volunteered their free time to monitor the event.

"It was a huge team endeavor. I'm super appreciative of all the help," Switzer said.

He said he plans to bring the book fair back annually and he hopes the school will have a PTA again next year.

"Its a good thing anytime we can get some new books in the hands of a kid or something other than a phone it's a good thing," said district superintendent Dan Niemi.