Vashon Partners in Education (PIE) presented an oversized check to Vashon Island’s School Board (VISD) at its last meeting of 2022 — representing $52,049 in grants awarded to Vashon teachers during the 2022 grant cycle.

For more than three decades, PIE has funded activities and materials requested by those closest to the educational process — schoolteachers, staff, and other community members. And this year, for its 35th anniversary year, board members added a new tradition — presenting home-baked pies to three of the selectors’ favorite grants.

In December, those pies went to three hero educators: the librarians of the district’s elementary and middle schools and the library manager of Vashon High School.

“The Board unanimously decided to give our 2022 PIE Awards to the district’s three wonderful librarians,” said PIE president Karen Boyle, who described the award-winners as people who have “done so much to keep the school libraries vibrant and welcoming places, and who keep Vashon students reading.”

The recent awards bring PIE’s total support of VISD libraries to $116,000 over the past three decades — grant money that has gone to purchase books, materials, periodicals and research resources.

In 2023, Chautauqua Elementary School Librarian Kathleen Lawrence will use her recent PIE grant to augment an early-learning curriculum with Native-authored books and with books featuring people with autism and learning differences.

Lawrence’s book choices, said Boyle, promote the exploration of family and cultural identity, as well feature subjects who are differently-abled — an underrepresented group in children’s books.

For children who are challenged with learning differences, seeing someone like themselves in a story is affirming, said Lawrence, who added that such books are also great for children without learning differences, to amplify the lives of disabled children and promote empathy and equity.

At Vashon Island High School (VHS), library manager Vanessa Gannon — new to the post in 2022 — will purchase new books for the high school collection based on three criteria: the climate crisis, Indigenous authors, and LGBTQ+ themes.

In an email, Gannon expressed her gratitude to PIE for its funding to make the library collection at the high school more dynamic and up-to-date.

“Only 10% of our collection has publication dates of 2017 or newer,” Gannon said.

At McMurray Middle School, librarian Julie Jaffe’s grant will fund the purchase of a curated assortment of graphic novels and other visually rich books.

Jaffe said that McMurray’s flourishing graphic novel collection is a significant resource that supports the development of reading skills, visual literacy, and creative expression and communication.

“It’s clear that our students appreciate that this is the case: when they enter the library, a great number of students — reluctant and proficient readers alike — make a beeline to our first-rate graphic novel collection,” Jaffe said, adding that she asks students to help her select new books to add to the collection.

Jaffe said that because of PIE’s support over the years, as well as seed money received from the Foege family 15 years ago, McMurray currently houses an extensive selection of outstanding graphic novels, as well as other visually striking and content-rich books that have wide appeal.

“This year’s students, and students for many years to come, will have access to these books,” she said.

In addition to expanding and refining collections, school librarians perform a wide range of duties.

An online job description lists some but not all of those duties, including supervising the school library/media center; providing a welcoming and accessible facility; offering services and resources that allow students to develop skills in locating, evaluating and synthesizing information to solve problems; curating selections for book carts; teaching and/or assisting teachers with lesson-plans and instruction; re-shelving books; brainstorming, and conferring and assisting in gathering relevant books, periodicals, images and videos.

The ad fails to mention that many of these tasks often take place simultaneously.

According to Boyle, PIE celebrates the hard work VISD school librarians perform — honing resource collections that stay relevant as student populations change and grow, and working with young, inquiring minds — sparking curiosity and helping students learn how to find information and solve problems.

Boyle said she was also grateful for the contribution of a recent anonymous donor whose “gesture made a huge impact.”

But she also thanked all of PIE’s donors, saying the work of the organization would not be possible without strong community support.

To support PIE’s grant program, donate online at vashonpie.org or mail a check to P.O. Box 1645, Vashon, 98070.