Empty desks are seen through a window of a classroom at King Middle School on Aug. 6, 2020. The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation awarded Portland Public Schools $25,000 to stock its middle school libraries – enough to add hundreds of new books to each of the three collections.  Derek Davis/Staff Photographer, file

The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation awarded Portland Public Schools $25,000 to stock its middle school libraries – enough to add hundreds of new books to each of the three collections.

The new books will highlight a range of cultural perspectives and aim to particularly benefit students learning English, the district said in an announcement Friday afternoon. The grant should allow the Lyman Moore, King and Lincoln libraries to purchase about 400 new books each, the district said.

Meredith Doyle, a multilingual educator at Lyman Moore Middle School, said the money will allow the libraries to expand their lower reading level and high-interest book sections.

“This will finally enable all of our ESOL newcomers to ‘shop’ and browse for books like all of the other students,” Doyle said in the announcement. “I have been dreaming and asking for this for almost 10 years and now it is about to become reality.”

Doyle spearheaded the application alongside Court Caywood, a library specialist at Moore and Lincoln, and James Ford, former community engagement coordinator at Moore, the district said.

More than 50 languages are represented among the district’s roughly 6,600 students, about a third of whom are English language learners, the district said.

In addition to expanding the library for English learners, school officials plan to use the grant money to add books by local authors and illustrators, including Daniel Minter, Samara Cole Doyon and Donald Soctomah, to the libraries’ collections.

“The accessibility of such literature will benefit all students, not just those learning English,” the district said.

The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation is a nonprofit created in 1986 focused on providing resources to community initiatives across Maine, according to its website.

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