McCarver Elementary’s after-hours library takes a baby step forward

A community request for an after-school library at McCarver Elementary School took a small step forward earlier this month with a line item in a proposed city of Tacoma budget.

The proposal, for the 2017-2018 city budget cycle, includes $50,000 to staff a library at McCarver. The historic Hilltop school, built in 1924, re-opened in September after a $39-million renovation by Tacoma Public Schools.

Included in the renovation is McCarver Square, an open space that includes the school’s library-without-walls, a restored stage and other areas designed to be flexible.

Stephen Murakami, the school district administrator who oversees the district’s building program, has said the library space was designed to function as “the front porch of the school — a place everybody will pass through.”

Officials of Tacoma Public Schools and Tacoma Public Library have been discussing the idea for more than a year. The school district has said it is willing to accommodate an after-school library, but that staffing would have to come through the library system, which is funded by the city.

Murakami said this week that McCarver was designed for after-school use by the community. Classroom spaces can be closed off while McCarver Square on the main floor — or the kitchen and eating area on the lower floor — is opened to the public.

The idea to open McCarver’s library as a public library after school hours sprang from a citizen group called the Hilltop Library Planning Committee. In 2015, they asked for the library to be open during afternoon and early evening hours, a few days a week.

The Hilltop’s closest library branch, the Martin Luther King Jr. library at South 19th and Cedar streets, closed in 2011. Now the closest is the main library, but library committee leaders say parents worry about sending children downtown by themselves.

Murakami said many details still need to be ironed out, should the city fund the part-time staff for McCarver. Those details include:

▪ Hours and days of operation.

▪ Will the after-school library check out school district materials, Tacoma Public Library materials, or both?

▪ Will the McCarver after-school library include only children’s materials, or will there be books or other items for adults to check out?

Murakami said the school district is eager to join with the city and other community groups at McCarver.

He said district officials are looking forward to a discussion about what the library of the future will look like.

“We are ready for the conversation,” he said.

The City Council will ultimately make the decision about whether the McCarver library staffing stays in its budget. Council members are due to vote on the budget in November.

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "McCarver Elementary’s after-hours library takes a baby step forward."