Four St. Vrain Valley staff were awarded the Colorado’s Department of Education’s Highley Effective Schools Through Libraries, or HESTL, designation this week.
The award was granted to Lesha Baker, Coal Ridge Middle School librarian, Kristin Holtz, librarian at Silver Creek High School. Holtz and Baker are among only 20 librarians in the state of Colorado to earn this distinction. They join Helen Robbins, Julie Singh, Jamie Nesbitt and LeAnne Kelly at SVVSD to earn the distinction.
The HESTL is a credentialing program that recognizes outstanding school library programs and school professionals. The program identifies five areas planning, instruction, leadership, management and environment as areas that promote a school culture of independent and lifelong learning.
Baker earned the distinction because she is dedicated to creating an environment the entire school can enjoy. She said that to earn the distinction she needed to document and show the state many of the things the library staff were already doing.
“It was for the kids, so they love the library, so they want to read, so they want to come in,” she said.
“Lesha, for you to go through all this work and take the time to make the library the heart of the school, it is really important to our district. It is an incredible space, clearly, for adults as well as students,” said Diane Lauer, chief academic officer at SVVSD.
Silver Creek High School was anecdotally called the “Dream Team” because three members of its staff earned HESTL recognition by Suzi Tonini, school library leadership consultant at the Colorado Department of Education.
Erick Finnestead, principal at Silver Creek, earned the HESTL Principal Collaboration credential for “demonstrating exceptional collaboration, support and advocacy for the teacher librarian as a leader and instructional partner,” according to the district.
Tina Fredo, a library clerk at Silver Creek, achieved the Highly Effective Library Paraprofessional recognition by earning four credentials: Engagement, Collaboration, Environment, and Management.
“Silver Creek High School has created a new gold standard for Colorado—the first school with a teacher librarian who has earned the HESTL school designation, a library paraprofessional who has earned the Highly Effective School Library Paraprofessional recognition, and a principal awarded the HESTL Principal Collaboration credential,” Tonini said.
“There are very few schools across the state that have received this designation from CDE,” said district librarian Helen Robbins. “We are extremely proud of Kristin, Tina, Erick and Lesha, and the knowledge and skills they bring to our team.”