Books for Teens Application Form

Please complete this application and send as a single attachment to YALSA@ala.org.

NAME: Amanda Sikes
TITLE: Media Specialist
INSTITUTION NAME: Long County Middle School
STREET ADDRESS: PO Box 729
CITY: Ludowici STATE: GA ZIP: 30417
CONTACT PHONE: (912) 545-2069
CONTACT E-MAIL: asikes@longcountyschools.org
Include the following information with the application form, as a single document, and provide this
additional information in no more than three double-spaced pages:

Describe the community that the institution serves, and include

socioeconomic statistics, recent Census data, etc. to verify your
statements.
The community of Long County that the media center serves is located in Southeast Georgia near the
coastline. Long County has one small city called Ludowici. Based on recent Census Data (2013), the
median household income for Long County families was $42,651. The population of Long County
for 2014 was estimated to be 16,624 people. This is a 15.51% increase since 2010. The population
growth is contributed to the close proximity of Ft. Stewart. The school district has approximately
3,300 students in grades PK-12. The students enrollment is 51% white, 26% black, 15% Hispanic,
8% Multi-racial, and <1% Asian.
The Long County School District has a 72.85% Free/Reduced Lunch population. There are 109
Migrant students, 40 homeless students, 385 special education students, and 205 ELL students.
The town has a few gas stations, Dairy Queen, Huddle House, and Subway. There is one small
grocery store. The town lacks activities for teens. There is a public library in Long County but there
are no places to purchase books. The nearest bookstore is about 60 miles away.

Describe the institution that will receive the funds.

The Long County Media Center serves the students in Long County in grades 4-8 as well as Pre-K
students. There are currently 1251 students in this school and all of these students share one library
that has limited resources. Over the last 7 years, our school system has experienced tremendous
growth and our population has increase by about 800 students. Over 70% of students in this
institution qualify for free and reduced lunch. The special education department serves 12.3% of the
population and there are 3.5% of our students that are ELL.
Long County Middle School has been on the focus school list since 2012. The school is constantly
working to increase student achievement.

Explain why the community that this institution serves needs these
materials. Include the characteristics of your young adult population.
The community needs the Books for Teens because there is a high need in this school to improve
achievement, especially reading test scores. The media center serves 1200 students and is very
limited with resources. There is a constant waiting list for items that are popular to teens like John
Green Books, or the Divergent Series. The media center only has one copy of each of these books.
By providing free books, Books for Teens would be helping change the lives of the students in the
small town of Ludowici. Our at-risk teens need something to keep them busy on the weekends and at
home during the week. The town lacks activities that keep teens involved. The nearest skating rink
and movie theater is about 20 miles away. Students do not have access to purchase new and exciting
books because the nearest bookstore is 60 miles away and these new books are usually checked out
from the school library.

Explain how materials would be purchased and distributed to the teens,

and describe the type of materials you will purchase and how those
particular materials meet the unique needs of the teens in your
community.
The media specialist would be purchasing and distributing the materials to the teens. The media
specialist has a list of books that are highly desired by the teens in our school district. Some of these
books are The Fault in our Stars or anything written by John Green, vampire books like Twilight or
Vampire Academy, Trilogy or series books like Divergent, The Legend, The Maze Runner, Harry
Potter, Nicholas Sparks books, Anime Books, and Graphic Novels. I think these books meet the
needs of students in our community because they are the ones begging to get them. Recently, we
ordered a few more of the popular books. The day the books came in, we cataloged them and before
we could get most of them on the shelves, they were checked out. The students were so excited.
Providing free books to them to take home and read on the weekends or during the summer would be
such a thrill for these students. As far as distribution, we talked about the book swap incentive
program. Everyone gets a free book and they can swap around with each other or we can build a
swap bin in the media center where the students can all bring books back and find new books if they
would like to do so.

Explain how the institution will promote teen registration for library
cards and encourage regular library usage.

The media center is always promoting reading and students visiting the library. Teachers are
encouraged to bring their classes at least once a week for 15 minutes so that students can check out
books and visit the media center for resources. The media center also has lots of rewards programs in
place for students that have a high number of AR points for the year. In addition, the school is
planning to give a free iPad to the student with the highest number of points for this school year.
Providing these new teen books will encourage even more students to visit the media center for
books. The media specialist is also planning to make a huge book display board for the school
lunchroom to promote all of the new teen books that will be purchased with the grant funding.
APPLICANT SIGNATURE: Amanda Sikes DATE: 09/18/2015
APPLICANT TTLE: Media Specialist
* I certify that to the best of my ability, all of the information I have provided is truthful and accurate.

(Note: Grant Application was not actually submitted. Designed for a school project)