Northwest Elementary School principal Dr. Heather Walston, left, and digital learning specialist Rachel Whitfield teamed up to write a grant that won the school $5,000 from the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries.

A $5,000 grant from the Laura Bush Foundation will put hundreds of new books on the shelves of the media center at Northwest Elementary School, probably in time for the opening of the new school year in August.

Northwest was one of 300 schools from 44 states awarded the grant through the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries this year. The money is earmarked for the purchase of books, and that’s fine with Northwest principal Dr. Heather Walston.

“We’re going to get new books for the library and be able to get rid of some of the older ones that are in circulation,” she said. “We got some (books) that have been here for 30 or 40 years. We’re going to work on updating our collection.”

Walston and Rachel Whitfield, the school’s digital learning specialist, collaborated on the grant application. They were notified of their success in late April, but the formal announcement of this year’s grant winners was delayed until Sunday.

The Laura Bush Foundation awarded $1.5 million in library grants this year. Since its inception in 2002, the foundation says it has awarded more than $19.5 million to more than 3,300 schools across the country.  

Northwest’s award amounts to back-to-back wins for LCPS schools. Kinston High School won the same grant in 2021 and used the money to buy about 300 books.

Northwest is ready to follow suit.

“In the next month of two, we should receive word that all the documentation we submitted has been approved and they’ll send a check to our school.” Whitfield said. “We can begin buying immediately. Our goal is to have the new books catalogued and shelved by August. It will be a great way to kick off the year.”