In 2025 the Library Committee of the PTO opened a bilingual library for the students at Worcester Dual Language School in Worcester, MA. Our goal is for our library to be a welcoming and inclusive space at the heart of our school. A donation to this campaign will help us purchase books and library materials.

Our School
We are a city-wide pre-k through 6th grade elementary school and our students come from every corner of Worcester. We are also a mulitilingual school, with the only transitional bilingual education and a two-way dual language program (in English/Spanish). Our school has about 550 students and is 65% low income, 80% high needs, and 49% English language learner.

Library Access
The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 eliminated a state requirement for every public school to fund and maintain a library. Pretty soon after that, elementary schools in Worcester began to see the removal of librarian positions until, by the early 2000s, no elementary school librarians remained. Many library spaces have been converted to classrooms and currently there is no funding from the Worcester Public Schools budget for elementary school libraries. library aides or librarians.

The Department of Secondary and Elementary Education does not keep statistics on library access for public school students in the state, so we do not have any reliable data to know how many schools have libraries or not. But a 2018 Massachusetts School Library Study conducted by the Special Commission on School Library Services found that there are huge inequities in Massachusetts between suburban and urban/rural school districts and access to librarians.

The School Library
Our school community is enthusiastic about maintaining a working library, but we have no budget and will be completely staffed by community and parent volunteers. We currently offer weekly visits to every class, and for the 14 weeks the library was open in 2025, 337 classes came through library and students checked out 4,408 books. Volunteers donated 822 hours of their time.

Our library gives our students, teachers, and families a bilingual center of inquiry, knowledge and creativity. It increases book access for our students and provides diverse media resources. Our goal is for our library to be a welcoming and inclusive space at the heart of our school and continue to be a multi-use space serving many needs.

Our Goals

Our library will increase family and community engagement with our school.
Our library will increase student access to media resources.
Our library will support literacy.
Our library will be a place where students feel comfortable exploring reading choices.

Sustainability
Our long term goal is to continue to advocate for professional library staff, as well as a yearly budget from the district. While we do that, we will continue to solicit donations from community foundations, businesses, and individual donors, as well as recruit volunteers, to maintain operation of the library. The library committee is made up of 11 parents dedicating their time and resources to make this dream a reality and make sure that we can sustain it.

Donate to the Library at the Worcester Dual Language Magnet School

Help support the welcoming learning space at the heart of our school

Team Members