Like A Rock: Far Rockaway High School

Students from Far Rockaway High School are just back from spring break, and media specialist Geri Ellner is busy getting ready for her first class. She’s already pulled out a copy of Anthony Browne’s award-winning picture book The Shape Game (Farrar, 2003), and now she’s patiently cuing up a Disney video of Pocahontas on the VHS.

No, this isn’t a lesson for her teenage students. It’s for their babies, who are about to arrive for a read-aloud and brief video screening.

Thanks to New York City’s Living for the Young Family Through Education (LYFE) program, teenage mothers in some 40 schools can earn their high school diplomas and GEDs while their infants—some as young as two months old—are cared for in the same building. And Ellner has taken full advantage of the program, devoting precious time to reading to her students’ newborns every week for the past two years.

Hooking up with the school’s LYFE center is just one of the many ways Ellner has reached out to her kids and teachers. Since arriving in October 2005, she’s weeded more than 5,000 books, automated the entire library, launched a monthly newsletter, and created a media center Web site. And for the first time, the library has WiFi, 17 computers, audiobooks, a comprehensive graphic novel collection, and magazines—such as Vibe, Black Beat, American Baby, and Sports Illustrated—that students actually find interesting.

She even got rid of late fines and formed a partnership with the local branch of the Queens Borough Public Library to get her kids library cards and signed up for after-school and summer reading programs.

This may sound like pretty standard stuff, but it’s actually quite impressive for a place like “Far Rock,” which New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg singled out in 2004 as one of the 12 most dangerous schools in the city.

In just two short years, Ellner’s completely revamped the media center, turning it from a room that was largely closed to students (teachers were allowed to use its resources) to a highly trafficked location that kids turn to for technology, good books, or a friendly shoulder to lean on. And teachers who don’t book their classes at least one week in advance know that it’ll be close to impossible to get some library time. The library’s circulation numbers speak for themselves: they skyrocketed to 1,400 items checked out this school year from a mere 97 items in the first three months Ellner came on board.

Many say that if it wasn’t for Ellner, Far Rockaway—with its severe overcrowding, poor funding, and population of mainly poor and black students—would have no library to speak of. “It was so far gone, it was like a neglected child,” the media specialist recalls.

It’s these accomplishments that helped land the 48-year-old native New Yorker this year’s School Library Journal/Thomson Gale Giant Step Award for the most improved library, and an accompanying $5,000 check for her media center.

To be fair, Far Rockaway High School did have a library. But many students and teachers didn’t know it existed. Located in a secluded area on the third floor, Ellner says that when she was given a tour of the library, its lights were turned off and its double doors locked. Principal Denise Hallett, who arrived almost three years ago, says she has no idea when the library was last fully functional.

Who knows what was going on in the previous librarian’s head, but all anyone will say is that the room was a complete wreck. “All you needed were coffins, and I could have been a funeral director,” Ellner jokes. Old paint and posters were peeling off the walls and the dingy, gray linoleum floor was decaying. Damaged and dusty furniture was piled high, misplaced books were thrown all over, and it was impossible to navigate the dozens of boxes and garbage that littered the room.

It’s hard to say what was more shocking—the hundreds of adult titles that were purchased for a staff book club or an outdated book that was last checked out in March 1958, two months before Ellner was born. “I was personally embarrassed at how a library could sink so low,” she admits.

Looking back at the many photos the librarian snapped during her first weeks—she was certain no one would believe the room’s horrendous condition—it’s hard to imagine this high school without its beloved library. With soaring 15-foot ceilings and 28 large-paned windows, the first thing you notice when you walk in is how bright and airy it is. The next is that everything’s so neat and organized. But it’s the personal touches—the colorful book displays; the bulletin boards; and the posters of Missy Elliot, Serena Williams, and Bernie Mac all reading—that give it a warm, welcoming feel.

On any given school day, an average of six classes pass through Ellner’s library. Dozens more students request special passes or stop by between classes to take advantage of her 8,400-plus collection.

What effect has this change had on academic performance? Hallett says the school has up to four years to get its students up to grade level, and so far “We are on target with math and are still making improvements in literacy.” Most importantly, the atmosphere has changed. “Our students tell us that they like being here,” she says, which is a far cry from a few years ago, when “Students were not proud of their school, and, for the most part, did not want to be here.”

Of course, Ellner says she couldn’t have done it alone. She credits the entire school staff—even the custodians who helped her clear out the library. But mostly, she’s grateful to Hallett, who not only hired her, but gave her a whopping $44,500 budget in her first year to carry out her mission.

It was Hallett who hosted and paid for a “Book Blast,” a breakfast and luncheon that was open to the entire staff to encourage library use. And it was also her idea to house the English/language arts department inside the library, so that Ellner and the English teachers could collaborate more frequently. To be sure, Hallett always talks up the library in staff meetings and stops by with top administrators during tours of the building.

Why did Hallett feel so strongly about making the library the “hub” of the school? Because it “supports every discipline, every student, every teacher,” she says. “Readers of all levels can find information.”

Most students would agree. Senior Rochelle Archibold skips lunch every day and sits in her usual library spot at the far corner to read, do homework, or complete assignments. “This is my place,” says the 18-year-old, who came from Panama with her family four years ago. “I love it here.”

Even tenth-grader Andrea Holmes—who had a 58 average on her last report card and was cited for excessive absenteeism—finds refuge there. It’s one of the few places where she’s not reminded of how hard her mother works to support four children and how her father is never home because he’s in jail. “When you read a book, you don’t worry about that,” says the 15-year-old, who admits that although she’s lost interest in school, “If I want to be somebody in life, I have to go.”

Located in a 86-year-old classical limestone building in an oceanfront community, Far Rockaway is the only high school in the city to have graduated three Nobel Prize winners. But that was a long time ago. Although the school has made great strides, it still needs metal detectors at every entrance, video surveillance cameras, and 16 uniformed guards employed by the New York Police Department patrolling its halls. And it’s still the kind of school that has its own health and dental clinic because parents can’t or don’t provide such basic needs for their kids.

Ellner knew the school still had a bad reputation when authors Michael Moshan, David Mendelsohn, and Michael Shapiro, who wrote Rock the SAT (McGraw-Hill, 2006), initially accepted her offer for a visit. That is, until they found out what kind of school Far Rock was—then they backed out. Their publisher sent 60 free copies of the book instead.

So why would a woman who lives in Cedarhurst, Long Island, one of the tony “Five Towns” just 15 minutes away, choose to work in a school where more than 75 percent of incoming freshmen performed poorly on statewide math and English exams and only half of its students graduate? “I felt right at home. I fit right in,” says Ellner with all honesty. For one thing, Ellner grew up on welfare in the Glenwood housing projects between Canarsie and East Flatbush in Brooklyn. And just like her students, she had a difficult childhood with a distant mother and busy father. “I was a child of the public school system, and I wanted to give something back,” she says. “The kids here are typical high school kids. They’re teenagers in love, teenagers who are focused on college, kids who are unhappy at home. And they’re just as worthwhile and deserving of anything as any other children in New York.”

Ellner explains that most of her students simply have the misfortune of being poor and, as a result, lack a strong support system. “Their parents are just worried about surviving day-to-day; they’re not really focused on literacy,” she says. “These are outside forces you have no control over.”

This isn’t the first time Ellner’s turned a media center around. She was a Giant Step runner-up in 2002 for accomplishing a similar feat at Catherine & Count Basie Junior High School 72 in Jamaica, Queens. And she’s also got creds to back it up. Although she was already armed with an MLS, Ellner took a one-year sabbatical in 2004 to brush up her library skills, registering for university courses in Internet use, software application, young adult literature, and motivating reluctant readers—all paid for out of her own pocket. She even has a $2,000 lifetime membership to the American Library Association. (Yes, she paid for that herself, too).

With all that she’s accomplished, Ellner admits that she’s only halfway there. The school—which is now formally known as the Far Rockaway Educational Campus—is no longer just a high school. It’s actually three schools in one. Three years ago, the Department of Education began phasing in Frederick Douglass Academy VI High School, which is made up of grades nine to 11, and this year KAPPA VI Middle School began phasing in grade six, which will be followed by grades seven and eight over the next two years.

This means Ellner must continue beefing up and expanding her collection, something that’s hard to do with insufficient funds. Each school operates autonomously and has its own budget. And as a result, she was only able to purchase 32 books for nearly 100 new KAPPA VI students because the principal only gave her $664.

There’s also still the problem of attracting more teachers. Not everyone’s like English teacher Sabrina Santiago, who brings her classes to the library every chance she gets and spends all her free periods there preparing for classes. Although Ellner uses her lunch period to schmooze with colleagues, sends them e-mails, and leaves notes in their mailboxes, only 30 percent collaborate with the library, she says.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Ellner says. “Russia had a five-year plan, so we’re still a work in progress.”

But one thing’s for sure—she wouldn’t change her job for the world. “One day, one of these kids may be the doctor who cares for me,” she adds. “That’s why it was so important to me to get into a high school and make a lasting impression on them.”