Book Bus hits the road Thursday

Hot Springs School District librarians and school staff members will be on the TrojansRead Book Bus every Thursday, starting this week.

“We recognize a need to personally connect with our Virtual Families, who often have technology questions and other concerns that they need answered,” Superintendent Stephanie Nehus said.

“Our librarians and staff teams are excited to use the #TrojansRead Book Bus as a way to continue providing books to our community, as well as personalized educational services and assistance from our schools,” she said.

The district’s Thursday route will continue to stop at multiple points throughout Hot Springs, including a visit to the district’s Alternative Learning Experience classrooms off-site, Nehus said.

“Relationships are the best way that we continue offering an effective, meaningful, and world-class education to our kids — no matter how they choose to attend school this year,” she said.

“We are so thankful to have resources like the book bus to help us meet challenging needs during challenging times,” Nehus said.

Amy Shipman, Hot Springs Word Class High School librarian, said this year the district has students doing traditional learning, blended learning and

virtual learning. They knew the students needed help with books, technology help, and other resources the staff can provide.

“It’s more of a connection for our virtual students to get what they need without having to worry about coming into the building,” she said.

According to the district’s Facebook page, the book bus will also be used to assist families with technology questions and challenges regarding SeeSaw, Schoology and Zoom sessions and any other virtual school-related questions and concerns they may have.

This was the district’s first summer using the TrojansRead Book Bus and it has been going well, Shipman said, noting LakeHamilton School District has a book bus, as well.

She said Lake Hamilton’s book bus was the first one in the county. The district partnered with Kamo’s Kids Foundation to get their bus started. It went so well for Lake Hamilton the foundation decided to start having any district that was interested in a book bus to contact them.

“This past summer, we went out, and it was a great success of getting out in the community, providing books and providing other resources,” Shipman said.

“We had some summer resources for our students and community members (that they can use). It was great, and we’ve already had several people interested in us coming back out this fall to provide those same resources to them,” she said.

Between now and Tuesday, the district asks Trojan families to send an email to their school librarian to let them know of locations to stop at that is convenient to them, according to the district’s Facebook page.

The district will publish the list of stops on Wednesday. The stops will be based on feedback emailed to them, the district said.

“We work to create a route that is as convenient as possible for our Trojan families,” the district said.

Emails for the librarians are bishopc@hssd.net (Oaklawn STEM Magnet School), barnesa@hssd. net (Langston Elementary Leadership Academy), cervantesf@hssd.net (Park Magnet, an IB World School), eavesh@hssd.net (Main Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School), jeffersj@ hssd.net (Hot Springs Junior Academy) and shipmana@hssd.net (Hot Springs World Class High School).