from Gloria Meraz,
Director of Communications
Texas Library Association
Dear Librarians,
The Comptroller recently announced a partnership with Texas
libraries to help fight the childhood obesity issue in Texas. The Comptroller’s
Office will mail resources to all Texas public libraries and
select schools. The press release is
available at:
http://www.window.state.tx.us/news2013/130716-tpl.html.
Recipients
·
All 910 Texas Public Libraries that report to
the Texas State Library and Archives Commission will receive free materials.
·
Public schools, including charters, will receive
the library materials that are Title 1 schools that have grades 3rd
and lower and that are 89.5% economically disadvantaged.
·
Public schools, including charters, will also
receive the sports equipment if the schools include grades 5 to 8 and whose
student population scored 30 percent or higher in the BMI high risk on the
latest Fitnessgram.
The Comptroller’s Office is working with publishers to mail
about a half dozen materials (books and/or DVDs). The Comptroller is
legislatively mandated to develop efforts on this front and has created a
Web portal
called
Reshaping Texas
(http://www.reshapingtexas.org/) to
provide information and resources. The partnership with Texas libraries is
another effort in this arena.
Letters with each packet will be mailed out, and the
Comptroller’s Office is asking for the librarians and P.E. instructors to fill
out a survey to obtain information, including data on checkouts, programming,
and estimated impact on the community/school population. Each school and public
library will also receive posters and stickers about the program. The stickers
are planned to be a reward to children that check out the titles sent to the
schools or public libraries. If the schools or public libraries run out
of stickers, they can request more for free until the supply is all
distributed. The materials will be addressed to the principals of the
schools or directors of the main or branch libraries so they are aware of the
program.
Libraries should expect to receive the materials in late
August or in September. Since the materials are being donated by different
publishing houses, there is no one standard
set of resources that will be mailed, and materials may be shipped in different
batches.
We are very excited about this partnership, as school and
public libraries are critical to the learning needs of Texas children.
TLA will send out additional information as it becomes available.
***If you are one of the schools selected to receive these materials, you will need to send them for processing, so they can be circulated. When you send them over, please mark them as "Reshaping Texas" materials so we will know they are part of this program. We will need to assign them a special category in the catalog, so that you will be able to track their circulation and provide data to the Comptroller's office.***