For most of Worcester's elementary school students, consistent library access doesn't exist. The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 eliminated the state requirement for public schools to fund and maintain a library, and by the early 2000s, librarian positions had disappeared from elementary schools across the city. Library spaces were converted to classrooms. The Worcester Public Library bookmobile visits once a month for just under three hours — that's about 20 seconds per student.

We believed our kids deserved better.

In 2023, the PTO Library Committee set out to change that. Over the next two years, parents, educators, and community members fundraised, donated, and volunteered to bring a community-led bilingual library to life. Furniture, books, a checkout system, media resources — all of it funded by this community, not the district.

In February 2025, we cut the ribbon!

What started as a dream is now a cornerstone of our school. Students browse the shelves, teachers build it into their week, and the library continues to grow as a bilingual center of inquiry, creativity, and belonging at the heart of our school.

This is what a community can do.

Our long-term goal is professional library staff and a yearly budget from the district. Until that day comes, we keep the doors open through donations from community foundations, businesses, and individual donors — and through the 15 parents on the Library Committee who show up every week to make it work.

Become a part of it.