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By Amber PompaHerald-Banner Staff

Amy Eppler is often referred to as “The Library Goddess” of Crockett Elementary School, a nickname she is rather fond of.

Eppler has served as a librarian for Greenville Independent School District for 10 years, hav-ing taught kindergarten

for 15 years at Travis Elementary School before making the change.

“In taking my students to the library, I realized I wanted to be a librarian instead,” she said. “I real-ized I wanted to bring reading to my kids, to as many kids as I could. Teaching was a wonder-ful experience and I learned so much that I carried over into what I

do now.”After coming to the

decision to change careers, Eppler went back to school 10 years into her teaching career to go back to East Texas State University to com-plete her master’s of library science, which was required to be a librarian in GISD, along with years of classroom experience. It took her

five years to complete the program.

“I took my time with it and enjoyed my classes so much,” she said. “It just so happened at year 15 I left the library at Travis to be a stay-at-home mom. It was amaz-ing how it all worked out and I wouldn’t change a thing. Not one thing.”

When she was younger, she had no thoughts of being a librarian, howev-er, nor even a teacher. Eppler wanted to be a stewardess, thanks to Stewardess Barbie.

“I longed for the travel and excitement, but even-tually, I decided I wanted to be surrounded by

books,” she said. Books played a huge

role in Eppler’s life, espe-cially growing up in a military family.

“Books were the only constant,” she said. “We’d pack them and unpack them, time and time again. I still have many of the books I read as a young child and have all the books my family bought me in my child-hood. Books were what I usually got for gifts and I was glad for them.”

Eppler’s family also had encyclopedias and she spent many an hour pour-ing over the volumes, along with the family atlas and dictionary.

“I think I got my pas-sion for reading from my parents,” said Eppler. “They read to me a lot, but they were also great storytellers with enthusi-asm and drama. I, in turn, did the same thing for my son.”

Eppler cannot imagine herself being anywhere but in the Crockett library, surrounded by the books as familiar as old friends.

“I love, love, love books and I don’t need no stink-in’ Kindle,” she laughed. “You have to be able to hold it, touch it and smell it ... it’s not just reading, it’s about the entire expe-rience.”

D5Herald-Banner Saturday, MarcH 31, 2012

THE FUTUREH e r A l D i n g

c o M M u n i t y & e d u c a t i o n

aMBer PoMPa / Herald-Banner

amy eppler, often referred to by many of her peers as the crockett elementary School “library Goddess,” takes great pride in arranging and decorating her library to make it a fun, yet quiet, place for students to escape and broaden their horizons.

crockett elementary School librarian amy eppler reads a book to cassidy Watson, arturo Villegas and Kimberly torres.

aMBer PoMPa / Herald-Banner

PrOFile On

Amy EpplEr

Schools aim to get more supportcontinued from page d1

like the Hunt County Master Gardeners, area churches and ACE Task Forces,” said Johanna Friedel, project director of the GISD Texas ACE Project. “We just want to thank everyone for the support during our inaugural year.”

Another grant which will, it is hoped, make a large impact on the district is the recent $7 million Texas Literacy Initiative grant. Monies will be apportion over five years, funding $1.4 million in lit-eracy services to the district each year.

The goal of the program is to improve pre-literacy and oral skills in preschools, enhance reading assessment perfor-mances for kindergartners through sec-ond grade students, boost proficiency rates on the state English language arts assessments in grades 3-12, increase data analysis to instruct decision making in participating districts and promote effect literacy instruction.

The district plans to use money from the grant to establish literacy-aligned curriculum and will fund the hiring of a project director and six full-time literacy coaches, along with purchasing supplies, books and computers.

A partnership is also in the works with the W. Walworth Harrison Public Library to provide services to the com-munity through this grant.

Aside from these grants, along with another recently received to improve the district’s buses, the district is doing its best to improve how the public perceives it.

This is being done through the new Spread the Red campaign.

The Spread the Red spirit campaign is basically an advertising campaign for the school district and is a way of improving public perceptions of the dis-

trict and garner support for its students, programs and staff.

“It is a campaign to upraise the stu-dents spirits, rejoice in their victories and blaze their successes,” said Kelli Tharp, director of community services for GISD. “It’s a way for us to harmonize our collective voice and show pride in our schools.”

The Spread the Red campaign T-shirts have already made appearance throughout Greenville and the schools themselves and this is just the first part of the campaign, with more to come, according to Tharp.

Another way the district is improving public perceptions is the revamping of the GISD Educational Enrichment Foundation, which had been defunct for several years before being revitalized this year.

The foundation raises money for the district and provides scholarships and other resources not covered under the general operating fund by offering pay-roll deductions to GISD staff. This is the foundation’s ongoing fund raiser and since the foundation is a certified 501(c)(3) non-profit, all donations are tax deductible.

Donations go toward classroom grants to help teachers fund special projects and activities, teacher scholar-ships that fund education and job-relat-ed training opportunities and student scholarship that fund post-graduation and dual-credit courses.

These are just a few of the changes that have or will occur in the district in 2012 with the goal, as always, being to improve the quality of education and opportunity provided to students in the district.

‘i wanted to bring reading to my kids’

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