(PSS) — Public school librarians from all three main islands gathered on Rota celebrate the Library Month proclamation, which honors the valuable work they do in transforming the lives of the students and communities they serve.
Board of Education members and Public School System officials, along with public school students led by Student Representative Vinnie Juan Q. Sablan, and AmeriCorps volunteers as well as other community stakeholders, witnessed the signing of the proclamation designating April as Library Month at Sinapalo Elementary School on Rota.
BOE Chairman Aschumar Kodep Ogumoro-Uludong signed the proclamation. Also participating in the ceremony were BOE Vice Chairman Anthony Dela Cruz Barcinas and Commissioner of Education Dr. Lawrence F. Camacho, on behalf of the Public School System.
Library Month has been celebrated CNMI-wide by the BOE and PSS since 2011s.
All public schools on Rota, Tinian, and Saipan will hold special events for the entire month of April to highlight the transformative power of librarians and libraries.
Saying that his parents were his “great support system,” BOE Chairman Ogumoro-Uludong shared the life-changing impact librarians and libraries have had on his life.
“Growing up, I had a support system that encouraged me to read at a young age. Being an islander, we are all limited in our ability to learn about different things around the world. But with books and libraries, we are given the opportunity to have an amazing experience of learning everything,” Ogumoro-Uludong said in his remarks.
“Thank you, librarians. I and my colleagues are here to support you. We will continue to work together with our commissioner of education and his team [to support our librarians and school libraries],” he added.
Commissioner Camacho, for his part, shared fond memories of his school library from his childhood in the 1970s.
These included “the world that we experienced through the library,” he said. “One of the most recognizable faces at our school was the librarian, and one of our famous facilities was our library.”
He added, “When kids recognize the librarian [it’s because] they know they are learning…and they are exploring. And to us educators, that is a wonderful experience [for] our children….”
Camacho said libraries exist because they are vital and critical to learning.
Maria Ornes, the current PSS State Librarian of the Year, was the keynote speaker during Monday’s proclamation ceremony.
“Here at PSS, we do magical work,” she said. “If you look around, there’s a sense of a magnetic pole that brings students [and] teachers together, to learn, to create, and to collaborate.”
“We are administrators, we are leaders, we are information specialists, we are educators…and when we all throw that together…we can do magic,” she added.
“But I do want to say, we have work to do. We are not done,” she said, adding that it is about time that an action plan is created for all schools to be able to “support each other.”
The Office of Curriculum and Instruction, under the leadership of Senior Director Dr. Rizalina Liwag and her team, organized the proclamation ceremony and the special event for PSS librarians on Rota.
Board of Education Chairman Aschumar Kodep Ogumoro-Uludong and Vice Chairman Anthony Dela Cruz Barcinas pose for a photo with Commissioner of Education Dr. Lawrence F. Camacho, Student Representative Vinnie Juan Sablan, Rota school administrators Annette Calvo and Daisy Quitugua, Senior Director for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Rizalina Liwag and other education officials, following a proclamation signing for Library Month at Rota’s Sinapalo Elementary School on Monday.
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Public elementary, middle, and high school librarians pose for a photo with the PSS Office of Curriculum and Instruction team led by Senior Director Dr. Rizalina Liwag.
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