SEBASTIAN — When Sebastian Charter Junior High School students move into the expanded campus buildings in May, members of Girl Scout Cadettes Troop 50003 hope to provide the state-of-the art facility with a library.
Currently, students use a makeshift library consisting of books stacked in teachers’ classrooms.
The Sebastian area Cadettes are raising money to purchase a proper library cataloguing system, scanning what books the school has into the computer to create a list of titles, and trying to find current resource materials such as globes, atlases and reference books to bulk up the library’s offerings.
“We’re really starting from scratch,” Troop Leader Patty Giordano said.
If construction goes as planned, Charter students will move out of the old portables, help their teachers pack up and move and finish out the school year in brand-new classrooms.
For the eighth-graders moving on to high school in the fall, this is especially meaningful.
“We’ve been promising and promising,” Principal Martha McAdams said of telling the students they’d be the ones to move into the new school.
The school broke ground in June 2011 with all the fanfare expected for the $3 million project. At the time, the plan was to move in before the end of the 2011-12 school year.
But it was the financing that proved to be the biggest challenge for the school, causing the construction to be delayed multiple times.
The School District of Indian River County chipped in nearly a half-million dollars, plus a $200,000 donation from an unnamed benefactor, and a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture came in to round out the funding to break ground.
It was the loan itself that caused headaches for the school when the first bank the school went to for the loan backed out. The school then scrambled to find another bank to provide the loan.
McAdams said they finally found Seacoast National Bank, which has worked diligently with the USDA to secure the funds for the construction.
“It’s been quite the ordeal,” McAdams said.
The new school building is now standing and most of the exterior work is done. Inside, crews are still hanging drywall, painting and working on electrical and water lines.
McAdams said it’s like walking into someone else’s building when she goes down the halls of the new building.
“It’s almost unreal,” she said.
Along with having two science labs complete with science tables so students can perform experiments, the new school will have a library and media center, which will be named in honor of journalism teacher Charles “Chris” Christophersen, who passed away last month.
“She’s seen the need first-hand,” McAdams said of Girl Scout Troop Leader Giordano, whose children attend the charter junior high.
A few of the girls in the troop expressed an interest in working on their Silver Award – the highest award they can receive in the Cadettes level and a prerequisite for the Gold Award, earned as a Senior Cadette and the equivalent to reaching Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts.
Leader Giordano said that once a couple girls said they wanted to work on the award, they all did – so they had to find a large enough project to accommodate the Silver Award’s requirements.
The award calls for a minimum of 50 hours per Scout – with eight Scouts, that means at least 400 hours of work.
“We’re going to put in more than that,” Giordano said.
Last Saturday, the girls spent several hours raising money for the school, conducting a car wash at the Advance Auto Parts on County Road 512 near Sebastian River Middle School.
Soaked and sudsy, the girls were eager to chat up their project to those who pulled in seeking to rid their vehicles of grime.
Twelve-year-old Stephanie Giordano, a sixth grader at the charter school, said she doesn’t mind going to class in the portables but is looking forward to being able to spread out in the new campus.
Whether she’ll do any cartwheels down the hall in celebration of the wider corridors remains to be seen.
McAdams joked that her school teaches pre-driving skills – stay to the right, no passing, caution on U-turns.
The old school currently holds 184 students, the new one boasts space for 270, comfortably.
Taylor Eason, 11, a fifth grader at Treasure Coast Elementary, is looking forward to starting next school year at the charter school as an incoming sixth grader.
The troop has been working on the library project since November, Eason said, keeping them busy with fund-raising and organizing.
“I’m very happy,” Katerina Moyer said of working on the Scout project that will benefit her school.
The 13-year-old seventh grader said that while she won’t be doing cartwheels in the halls, “I know a few of my friends will probably do that.”
Not all the girls in the troop will directly benefit from the new library at the charter school.
Twelve-year-old Nicole Charest attends Storm Grove Middle School and has no plans to transfer to Sebastian Charter Junior High.
“It feels good to be helping,” Charest said, adding that the project has helped boost her self-confidence. “It helps me know I’m helping my community.”
Since many in her troop wanted to work on the Silver Award, Charest said it would be easier for her to work on the same project than strike out on her own.
“I would think to do something at their school,” she said, “because my school’s really new.”
One of the youngest girls in the troop is Sara Hansen, a 10-year-old Liberty Magnet student. The troop had to get special permission from the Girl Scout Council to allow the younger girls to participate in the Silver Award project.
“We haven’t decided yet,” Hansen said of whether she’ll go to the charter school when she reaches sixth grade. Regardless, she said she’s happy to work on the project.
“I have a ginormous library at my school,” she said. “I want others to have the same.”
Rachel Presti, 12, and sixth grader at Sebastian River Middle, said it’s been fun working on the project.
“I’m trying to experience new things,” she said.
Along with raising money and cataloguing books, Jasmine O’Grady said the project has helped her grow.
“I’ve always been a little afraid to talk to people I don’t know,” said the 11-year-old sixth grader from Storm Grove Middle. Being forced out into the community to raise money and chat up the project has helped her address that fear.
Madison Elford, 12, and a sixth grader at the charter school, said she’s excited that her school will finally have a proper library.
She’s also learning patience through organizing the books the school has.
“It takes a long time,” she said.
Principal McAdams said that if not for the Girl Scouts, the new library would essentially be a series of shelves lined with books using the old sign-out card system currently in place.
“It’s a lot of work,” she said of keeping the books organized and keeping track of them using the cards.
With the new computerized system the Girl Scouts are raising funds for, the teachers will be able to know who has what book checked out and when it’s due to return. Students would also be able to perform a computer search for potential book selections.
Anyone interested in donating to the effort – be it financially or with materials – is encouraged to contact Girl Scout Troop Leader Patty Giordano by calling (772) 643-4021 or emailing girlscoutsrock@netzero.net.
Checks can be made out to Girl Scout Troop 50003 with “library” on the memo line and sent to Girl Scout Troop 50003 c/o Patty Giordano, 1310 Dewitt Lane, Sebastian, FL 32958.
A plaque listing every donor – no matter the amount – will be placed outside the library.