Loud time at the library

Eighth-graders Tyler Hudgins and Matt Sullivan swung 12-pound sledgehammers into a wall into the North Middle School library Friday, leaving big holes.

And no one was angry.

North’s library is getting a face-lift, and step one was demolition.

“I’ve always wanted to do this — tear down something in my school,” Sullivan said.

Hudgins and Sullivan are working with a nonprofit organization created by two Steele Elementary parents who wanted to connect community members with projects in Colorado Springs School District 11 schools and make sure students were involved.

Shelley and Jeff Jensen don’t have students at North Middle School, but partnered with the school near Wahsatch Avenue and Uintah Street because it’s their neighborhood school and middle-school students are the right ages to make positive changes at their school.

Initially, the students dreamed of a community center. Then, an out-of-state foundation provided $20,000 to renovate the school’s library and that became the project, Shelley Jensen said.

Students have helped design how the library will be laid out and what it will look like — from what walls need to go to the color of the carpet.

North Teacher Mary Ley said some of the upgrades include a movie screen and small computer labs, shorter bookshelves to make books more accessible and updated furniture.

The library’s orange and green plastic chairs, for example, will be upgraded to tall wooden chairs with chrome accents.

“The kids picked it all out,” Ley said.

Students said it will be more comfortable for kids, with room to spread out and places to lie down and read a book.

The students have raised roughly $46,000 in the past three months, Jensen said.

“People have great hearts,” she said. “They just don’t know how to contribute.”

Partnerships with community members and businesses happen frequently in D-11, said district spokeswoman Elaine Naleski, but not often on the scale of the North Middle School library project.

A parent group at Wilson Elementary this fall worked with community members and business to do a major beautification project at the school.

“It’s just not an everyday occurrence,” Naleski said.

The district is creating an official community partnership program and planning to do more outreach to get the community involved in local schools, she said.

Along with a new facility, students are also planning new programs for the North library, Jensen said, including book clubs and film festivals of student-produced films. Students hope to bring senior citizens and Colorado College students in to supervise activities at the library before and after school.

People shouldn’t be surprised middle-school students are the forces behind a library renovation, Sullivan said with a grin, as he picked up the sledgehammer again.

“Even though we’re young, we all have great minds,” he said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0394 or shari.griffin@gazette.com