Handy Elementary Receives Grant to Update and Diversify Library Offerings

Orange, CA – June 8, 2017 – Orange Unified is pleased to announce that Handy Elementary has been chosen as a 2017 recipient of the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries grant in the amount of $7,000.

In keeping with the grant’s goals, school staff looks forward to continuing to foster Handy students with a love for reading by upgrading and diversifying their book and print collections and investing in classroom libraries throughout the school.  Thus far, students have experienced huge gains in language arts across all grade levels, with high-interest, complex texts at each student's level of reading development being key to continued growth and success for all students.

"We are humbled by being awarded this grant and look forward to seeing our students expand their breadth of literary competency, as well as increasing selections from some of their favorite authors, while growing as readers," stated Handy Principal Michelle Owen,  Ed.D.

Handy Elementary was one of eleven schools in California to receive funding from Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries this year. In total, 160 school libraries were selected from 38 states across the country.

According to their website, “Since its founding in 2002, the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries has provided more than $13.4 million to school libraries for the purchase of books and printed materials.”