ROCHELLE – Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has awarded more than $1.2 million in funds to 684 public school districts across the state through the District Library Grant Program. Included in the chosen districts are both the Rochelle elementary and high school districts as well as Kings and Eswood school districts.
The grants were awarded based on a formula of $0.75 per student with a minimum grant award of $750. The libraries receiving the funds can use the money on many different things including fiction and nonfiction books, educational CDs and DVDs, as well as many other resources to improve the technology or Wi-Fi connection of the library.
Jesse White knows the importance of these types of grants first hand since was once a teacher himself.
“As a former public-school teacher and administrator, I know our school libraries are very important in helping students learn and prepare themselves for the future,” said White, in a press release. “Illinois was the first state to implement a school district grant program, and I am pleased that we can continue to provide school libraries with some of the financial resources they need to produce well-educated students.”
Many teachers believe that having a functioning library is an essential part in proving students with a quality education.
Locally, Kings School District #144, Eswood School District #269, and Rochelle High School District #212 were awarded $750, while Rochelle Elementary District #231 was awarded $1,121.25.

Grants such these are very important to many school libraries throughout the state and that is why Kings librarian and teacher Janet Butler applies to many different grants ever year through Jessie White to the state.
Throughout her years of teaching Butler has seen first-hand the effects that state funding can have on a school library.
“This is my 13th year, and over the years state funding has dramatically decreased, so my budget for books has too,” Butler explained. “We really rely on grant money to help us have a quality library for the students.”
Grants from previous years have helped supply the school with things like curriculum books, such as health books and science books, and then last year they were able to purchase books on different kinds of animals.
The school already has something in mind they are hoping to use the funds from this grant on.
“I have a really nice health set that I am hoping to use the money from that for,” added Butler. “It is all about basic health for families so they can learn about chicken pox, influenza, allergies and different things like that.”
Rochelle Township High School also relies on funds from grants such as these to help complete their collection of different book series.
RTHS librarian Ann Marie Jinkins says that many times she will use the schools’ funding to purchase the first book in a series and if it is a hit then she will use grant funds to finishing purchasing the rest of the books in a series.
Most of the time Jinkins uses grant funds to purchase books that are not normally covered by the school’s budget.
“I usually use the funds on series fiction, graphic novels, or Manga which are Japanese comics translated to English,” explained Jinkins. “We have a comic book club here and they read a lot of those, so there is an audience for sure.”
Without funds from grants like this one, many schools including RTHS would not be able to offer students the great selection of books that they currently do.