Forest Hills — Juniors Paulie Erickson and Annaliese Hoffmann sat in the renovated Central High School library, working on equations for a dual enrollment class.
“It’s a good workspace,” Paulie said about the library. “It’s nice to have a place to go where you can stay motivated on what you are doing.”
The library space was renovated this past school year as part of a $340 million bond issue passed in 2023.
Librarian Jaye Jelier said the space has been opened up, with the entrances expanded to one each on the south, north and west sides of the library.
“Before it seemed so dark and sad,” Annaliese said. “Now I come in here to work, and teachers are coming in here.
“It’s just easier to work here, because you have more space. There are rooms with whiteboards, which are fun to write on as you try to work out your math equations.”
On the east side of the library, there are three private rooms with TV monitors and large whiteboards for small groups. There also is a study room, called the Michigan Room because it features posters of popular sites around the state.
“It is a better fit for students and teachers to collaborate and learn,” Jelier said of the new rooms.
Near the north entrance, the library’s interactive classroom and lecture hall have been refurbished.
“Sometimes it’s nice for teachers to be able to offer a change of location,” Jelier said, adding that teachers have used the spaces for a variety of classroom activities.
History teacher Trevor Riley was taking advantage of the interactive classroom. While setting up the space, he noted that it was nice to have an area teachers can adapt to meet the needs of a particular lesson while also giving students an opportunity to spread out.
The remodel also included a back room for the storage of classroom novels, placed in alphabetical order to make them easier to locate.
Because of the library’s central location, it has a Chromebook station where students can charge or borrow one. The library also has project supplies such as glue sticks, colored pencils and even poster boards for $1.
The entire space has been accented with Ranger green, helping to create a more welcoming environment, Jelier said.
“Libraries are supposed to be gathering places,” she said, noting that this is especially true for Central’s library because it is located in the middle of the building. “Students can sit and talk, and do what they need to do.”
Connecting Students to the Books
With the renovation, Jelier — an avid reader and author — also curated the library’s collection, pulling outdated books, adding extra copies of favorites and looking for new books to connect students to their interests and to books they might want to read.
“I tried to focus on new books, and I have students tell me they have gone to Barnes & Noble, picked up a book and realized, ‘My high school has this,’” she said with a laugh.
Books also have been reorganized by theme, similar to public libraries.
Looking for a book on the Tuskegee Airmen? Then head to the war section.
Need a copy of Kenneth Oppel’s dystopian novel “Best of All Worlds”? It’s in that themed section.
Searching for a vegan student handbook? Check out the cookbook section.
And there is a Michigan collection, where students might find the newly released “The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by John U. Bacon, as well as a Motown section that includes a ukulele book of that genre’s tunes and a ukulele available for checkout.
“The idea is to make it easy for students to find what they are looking for and to figure out what they might want to read,” Jelier said. “If a student comes in with a reading requirement and is not sure what to read, I can help steer them to something that will connect with their interests.”
Paulie said the library’s selection has made it easier to fulfill the reading requirements for his AP Literature class.
“There is just plenty here,” he said. “There is always something in the genre that you want to read.”
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