The Cheatham County Library Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution during its Jan. 21 meeting stating that it “supports the development of a comprehensive Literacy Initiative Program, including facility construction, equipment acquisition, and staffing support for the program.”
The literacy program will be spearheaded by the South Cheatham County Public Library in an effort to gain donors for the board’s plans to build a new library in Kingston Springs.
“We have a problem with literacy in this country. That’s the driving force [behind building a new library],” said Bob Perry, chair of the Board's Building and Grounds Committee. “Only 29% of eighth graders are reading at an eighth grade level. That means 71% of eighth graders in the state of Tennessee cannot read at the eighth grade level – middle school level.”
“Putting the new facility next to the middle school is aimed directly at that,” Perry said. “We will have a collaboration with the school. We have got to do better.”
The Cheatham County Library Board of Trustees began the process to relocate the Kingston Springs Library that services all of South Cheatham in 2024.
The proposed location – in the lot adjacent to Harpeth Middle School and behind the ambulance station on East Kingston Springs Road – would be around 10,000 square feet and two stories, according Perry.
Perry emphasized that the new library will be a “LAT”: a center for library and literacy; arts and archives; and technology and teaching. He has previously told the Gazette that he wants the new building up “ASAP,” and hopes it won’t take longer than two years.
The new library will be funded with a combination of government funds – like taxes from the Towns of Pegram and Kingston Springs – donations and grants. Perry said they will not begin asking for donations until they have preliminary drawings of the building from the architect.
During the Board’s January meeting, Perry said he met with potential “major” donors that “have the ability to make a seven figure donation” to the new library. These experts were the ones who recommended marketing the new library as a literacy initiative instead of a building project, Perry explained.
“The building will just be part of this literacy initiative. You can’t have that program in here,” Perry said as he gestured to the log cabin the library currently habitates on Main Street.
During its September meeting, the Board voted to support the creation of a non-profit foundation that would raise funds for the new library and its programming. Perry said a key job of the foundation would be to help the Board decide what programs the community needs and how the new building would support those.
Perry said the donors he met with recommend the Literacy Initiative Program to be centered around reading literacy, computer literacy and food literacy.
South Cheatham County Public Library Director Jennifer Ensley – who is not a voting member of the Board – voiced her support for the literacy initiative surrounding the new library building.
“It would mean a lot of changes as far as how do we staff that – it’s on a much larger scale than what we have now,” Ensley said. “It’s very exciting because it’s an extension, if you will, of the schools that we serve in our community. It is very exciting to think of what … could be done and the possibilities.”
The Cheatham County Library Board of Trustees will hold its next workshop at the South Cheatham branch of the library on Feb. 18 at 3 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
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