2023-2024 School Library Access Mini-Grant Early & Elementary Literacy Interim Report

2023-2024 School Library Access Mini-Grant Early & Elementary Literacy Interim Report

Due: January 20, 2024
Thank you for participating in the School Library Access Mini-Grant Program sponsored by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and coordinated by the School Libraries staff. This grant project has three primary goals (see Appendix A). Your feedback on this report will determine whether the goals and desired outcomes of the program were achieved and help us identify strengths and challenges in order to improve the project for future participants.

Please review the questions on this report to ensure the appropriate data has been collected. Submit this report by January 20, 2024.
PART I: CONTACT INFORMATION
Grant Number: *
Located in the subject line of the Grant Award Notice email and on the first page of the Grant Application/Agreement PDF.
Name of School:*
Name and number of school district: (example: Coeur d'Alene School District #271)*
Name of person submitting this report:*

First NameLast Name
Title of person submitting this report:*
Best email address to reach the person listed above:*
example@example.com
Best phone number to reach person listed above:*

Area CodePhone Number
PART II: NARRATIVE AND DATA REPORT

As part of the mini-grant program, you agreed to meet the grant requirements outlined in your school's Grant Application/Agreement (see Appendix B). Please answer the following questions which are related to the activities and requirements of this grant program:

1. According to your policy, how many books PER WEEK is each student in your school allowed to check out from the library to take home? Please use 000 in the "Grade Not Served" column to indicate the grade level is not served by your school. Note: this question is about your policy rather than the actual number of books checked out out by individual students.*

	Fall 2023	Grade not served
PreK
Kindergarten
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Grade 6

2. Please describe any feedback you've received from faculty, parents, administrators, or any other stakeholder as a result of checking out books for students to take home during the Fall 2023 semester.*
3. What has been the biggest success of the grant project so far?*
4. Did you help organize an Idaho Family Reading Week event or other family literacy event at your school? Please describe your event, with approximate attendance numbers, any feedback you received, and the overall result. Where there lessons learned or things you'd do differently next time? If you've not yet held your family literacy event, please provide a brief description of your plans to fulfill this requirement.*
5. Please describe the results (so far) of your plan to increase students' out-of-school reading time. *
PART III: FINANCIAL REPORT
Per the terms of the Grant Agreement (see Section 4.h.-j.), grantees are not required to submit invoices or receipts for book purchases or other expenses associated with the SLA Mini-Grant program. Rather, responsibility for maintaining project financial records during the grant period and for a period of three years after the completion of the project falls to the grantee, i.e. the school district. Please work with your school district office or school office manager to complete this section of the grant report.
Please read the financial report instructions carefully and initial here that you understand the requirements.*
6. What is the amount of your grant award?*
7. How many books have you purchased with your grant funds so far?*
8. What percentage of your grant funds have been spent on nonfiction books?*
9. Please attach an order summary, packing slip, or other document list showing the book titles with authors that you have purchased so far. Please use a pdf; a photo is too small to read. *

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10. Please describe any obstacles that you encountered ordering book titles and using grant funds.*
11. Individual receipts or invoices are not required for this grant report. Instead, please attach an interim Transaction Detail report to demonstrate how your grant funds were spent. This type of report should be requested from accounting staff at your school district office, from your education foundation office, or from the staff member in your school designated to track school expenduires (See the Financial Report example on our website at http://libraries.idaho.gov/school-access-mini-grants - under “Reports and Documents”). If your school district or school does not use accounting software, please contact jeannie.standal@libraries.idaho.gov to arrange an alternative method of financial reporting.
Please save your financial report as a pdf and attach it to this report here:*

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Please initial in the box below to acknowledge that a financial report generated by your school's, school district's, or education foundation's accounting system has been attached.*
12. To date, what amount of awarded grant funds have been spent?*
*Note: The amount of grant funds spent listed in Q #12 should match the amount spent listed in your financial report for Q #11. This should be the amount that has been paid out by your accoutning office rather than the amount that has been obligated, but not yet paid.
13. Has more than 5% of your total grant award been spent processing expenses like supplies, vendor processing, or labeling fees?*

YesNo
If more than 5% of your total grant award has been spent on vendor processing or labeling fees, please explain:
14. Are you a first-time grantee? Not sure? Check the list at https://libraries.idaho.gov/school-libraries/elementary-school-grants/ under the Grant Application banner to see if your school has received this grant before.*

YesNo
15. Please verify that your school or school district contributed the 10% match to your book budget. This could be indicating the transaction in the financial report that is attached to the report, or you could attach another report showing the funds available to you to spend on books. Please indicate here where we can find the transaction showing the 10% match.
Your signature verifies the accuracy of the information in this Interim Report.

Clear
Appendix A: SLA Mini-Grant - Early & Elementary Literacy Program Goals
1. Increase the amount of reading done in homes of children in developmental preschool programs, kindergarten, and first grade.

2. Increase access to age-appropriate quality nonfiction and fiction titles in elementary school libraries.

3. Increase the number of children reading on grade level.
Appendix B: SLA Mini-Grant - Early & Elementary Literacy Program Requirements
My school is:

A first-time grantee that serves any combination of PreK, kindergarten, and Grade 1:A grantee that has received an SLA Mini-Grant in a previous school year or that does not serve students in any combination of PreK, kindergarten and/or Grade 1.
For first-time grantees that serve any combination of PreK, kindergarten, and Grade 1:

The following requirements must be met by your school during the grant period (August 1, 2023 - April 14, 2024):
- All kindergarten and Grade 1 students (including developmental PreK if they are served by the school) will be allowed to take home more than one book per week starting in the first semester of school.
- Students in all grades will be allowed to check out nonfiction books.
- All grant funds will be spent on age-appropirate books for PreK, kindergarten, or Grade 1 students. Funds can be spent on fiction or on nonfiction books, but at least 40% of the funds must be spent on nonfiction books. Age-appropriate titles for these grade levels must take into account the interest levels for young children and include primarily good quality, read-aloud titles for family members to read to students in these grades, not necessarily reading levels of K-1 students. Book purchases may include books with interest level up to Grade 2.
- Accelerated Reader tests, library software, library shelving and signage are not allowable purchases with these funds.
- Up to 50% of grant funds may be spent with any single publisher.
- Grantee will compete both an interim grant report (due January 20, 2024) and a final grant report (due April 28, 2024). Grantee will be well-prepared for both grant reports by working with their school district personnel and tracking grant information throughout the grant period. Interim and final reports will require a list of fiction and nonfiction titles, a summary report of grant expenditures, circulation statistics by grade level (when possible), and feedback on changes in circulation practices.
- All schools must hold a family literacy or other outreach event during the grant period. Some possibilities include Idaho Family Reading Week, a celebration of Read Across America, and El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros. These events can be in-person or virtual, as circumstances permit. Some grant fund may be used to support this event:
  
  -Up to a total of 20% of the grant funds can be used for allowable purposes other than the purchase of books for the collection. The funds used for book processing will be considered part of this 20%.
  
  -Up to 5% of the grant award may be used for book processing and related supplies (i.e. MARC records, labels, barcodes, processing fees with vendors, protective laminant covers, etc.).
  
  -Give-away books for students to encourage summer and/or out of school reading are allowable.
  
  -Bilingual books for English-learning students to keep and take home to read with their adults are allowable.
  
  -Food is not an eligible use for grant funds.
For grantees from schools who have received an SLA Mini-Grant in a previous school year or who do not serve students in any combination of PreK, kindergarten and/or Grade 1.

The following requirements must be met by your school during the grant period (August 1, 2022- April 14, 2024):
- All students in all grade levels will be allowed to check out and take home more than one book per week starting in their first semester of school, including preschool students, if applicable.
- Students in all grades will be allowed to check out nonfiction books.
- Grant funds will be spent on age-appropriate fiction and nonfiction books for the grades served by the school. When selecting age-appropriate titles for all grade levels, librarians should consider the interest level for students and include high-quality titles for family members to read aloud to students and for students to read independently. The reading level (ATOS, AR, Lexile, etc.) should be a secondary consideration, if considered at all.
- Accelerated Reader tests, library software, library shelving, and signage are not allowable purchases with these funds.
- A maximum of 50% of grant funds may be spent with any single publisher, as outlined during the business meeting and in the recorded webinar.
- 40% of grant funds must be spent on age-appropriate, high-quality nonfiction.
- All schools that are not first-time grantees must provide a 10% match with the grant funds to be spent on books for the school library collection within the grant school year.
- All schools must hold a family literacy or other outreach event during the grant period. Some possibilities include Idaho Family Reading Week, a celebration of Read Across America, and El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros. These events can be in-person or virtual, as circumstances permit.
  - Up to a total of 20% of the grant funds can be used for allowable purposes other than the purchase of books for the collection. The funds used for book processing will be considered part of this 20%. Some allowable uses might include:
  - The required family reading or other outreach event to be held during the grant period. Partnering with the public library to encourage students and their families to hold library cards, giving them access to public library services, is strongly encouraged.
  - Up to 5% of the grant award may be used for book processing and related supplies (i.e. MARC records, labels, barcodes, processing fees with vendors, protective laminant covers, etc.).
  - Give-away books for students to encourage summer and/or out of school reading are allowable.
  - Bilingual books for English-learning students to keep and take home to read with their adults are allowable.
  - Food is not an eligible use for grant funds.
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2023-2024 School Library Access Mini-Grant Early & Elementary Literacy Interim Report

PART I: CONTACT INFORMATION

PART II: NARRATIVE AND DATA REPORT

PART III: FINANCIAL REPORT

Appendix A: SLA Mini-Grant - Early & Elementary Literacy Program Goals

Appendix B: SLA Mini-Grant - Early & Elementary Literacy Program Requirements