Chapter leaders join forces

For six years, the library space that students encountered as they entered the Walton Educational Campus building in the Bronx was dark and the doors were kept locked.

That changed after the UFT chapter leaders of the five co-located high schools on the campus joined forces and convinced their principals to chip in funding to rebuild the library and hire a campus librarian.

Those chapter leaders and school staff, administrators and students gathered on April 8 for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Speaking at the event, UFT President Michael Mulgrew said the new library was a testament to how the school communities at the five high schools stuck together and collaborated to make sure students would have access to a library. "All high school students should absolutely have access to a library each and every day that school is in session," he said.

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson attended, as did City Council Member Eric Dinowitz, a former teacher and chapter leader at the Celia Cruz Bronx HS of Music at Walton.

Drew Pecunia, the chapter leader at Kingsbridge International HS on the campus, said he and his fellow chapter leaders on the Walton campus had to push their principals to act and then get Department of Education officials on board. "All of us stayed right on them, and we didn't give in," Pecunia said.

Seth Gilman, the chapter leader at the HS for Teaching and the Professions, said the chapter leaders were spurred to action since "no one was taking responsibility" for the abandoned library. New York State regulations require every secondary school to have a library with a certified school librarian.

When the former Walton HS closed in 2008 and was broken into five small high schools, its library was dismantled. A limited library was housed in the basement for a time before being moved to the current space, which closed in 2019 due to structural damage.

Maria Simon, a longtime teacher and newly minted librarian, was hired as the campus librarian in February and scrambled to clean up, organize and begin to refresh the library's dated collections.

Simon said the revamped library is much more than books. "It's about access, belonging and possibility," she said. "My goal is to make the library a place where students feel safe, seen and inspired, whether they're researching, reading or just taking a breath on a busy day."

Celia Cruz HS Chapter Leader Brian Boggan took pride in the library's finally becoming "a home" for students "that has books, that has technology" and is a quiet, safe space.

Students agreed. Elizabeth, a senior at Discovery HS on the campus, said having the library means a lot. "Now that we have a library," she said, "I see that Discovery students or other students on the Walton campus are constantly using the library during break time."