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LASLA Friend of the Library Award

It is my pleasure to nominate our principal, Mara Bommarito, for the LASLA

Friend of the Library Award for 2008. As principal of Ellen Ochoa Learning
Center (K-8) since 2005, Ms. Bommarito has worked tirelessly to improve
the condition of both libraries at our school. E.O.L.C. is the only school in
LAUSD that has two libraries in two locations on one campus with one
location code. One library serves the K-5 student population and the other
serves 6-8 students. This circumstance had made for some unusual and
uneven situations in both libraries. Thanks to Ms. Bommarito’s TLC, both
libraries at our school are now attractive, have adequate staffing, seating
and shelving and are in the continuing process of becoming fully stocked with
books and other material to enhance the learning environment.

The moment Ms. Bommarito assumed leadership in July 2005; she made the
improvement of the libraries her top priority. As an avid reader who is not
shy about describing happy memories of her childhood spent primarily as the
school age pet of the librarians in the Culver City Public Library, she
understands how a library functions best for the benefit of the students,
teachers and parents. To accomplish her goals, Ms. Bommarito has spent
much money to decorate, outfit and retool the shelving in the elementary
library to facilitate access to books by students. In July 2007, she bravely
hired a second teacher librarian to work with students and teachers at the
elementary school. She commissioned gorgeous murals for the walls of both
the elementary and middle school libraries that reflect the admonition and
encouragement of our namesake, Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, to “Reach for the
Stars.” She has spent money above and beyond the wildest dreams of most
teacher librarians to fully stock both libraries with materials relevant to the
curriculum in use at the school, as well as encouraging the purchase of
materials to enhance reading for pleasure.

Beyond all this, Ms. Bommarito actively promotes community involvement in

our school by supporting a parent book club through the purchase of special
materials for parent use and by paying the elementary teacher librarian for
the extra time she spends each week on the student/parent literacy
evenings. Ms. Bommarito understands the importance of the library as an
oasis for students and staff alike in the rough and tumble of the day-to-day
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world of the school community. She is acutely aware that for many middle
school students, the library is their refuge from the society of the
playground at nutrition and lunch, and she supports the many activities that
we encourage during those times, above and beyond reading.

Ms. Bommarito believes that all libraries are the foundation of a civilized
society, and she is clearly aware that schools have an opportunity and, she
believes, a duty to maintain the highest standards in their libraries, so as to
add to the civilizing effects of schools on society at large. Daily, she “walks
the talk” and has impressed us all with her commitment to literacy. It is for
all the above reasons, that I am proud to nominate Mara Bommarito for the
LASLA Friend of the Library Award for 2008.

Cynthia Bianchi – Teacher Librarian – E.O.L.C. Middle School

I whole heartedly concur with the above essay written by Ms. Bianchi and
lend my support to the nomination of Ms. Mara Bommarito for LASLA Friend
of the Library Award for 2008.

Eunice Castaneda – Teacher Librarian – E.O.L.C. Elementary School