Students at Hot Springs School District's Park Magnet, an IB World School, and Main Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School have a fun new incentive to read books, in the form of book vending machines, which were recently installed on campus.
A selection of students representing each grade, kindergarten through sixth, were on hand Thursday morning for a special ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil the new machines.
Park Magnet Library Media Specialist Amy Ratcliff said the books are entirely free to the students, who earn tokens to "purchase" books by demonstrating good behavior and doing the right thing.
"We want kids to know how important reading is and it's something that you'll do your whole life," she said. "Having books and getting books in all of their hands is what the main purpose is, and to show the importance of reading."
Ratcliff said the students are "enthralled by those lights in the vending machines. They're all trying to put real money in ... 'How much do these books cost?' So they're ready to spend money but they're going to earn it by being principled."
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Thursday was the first day the students got to use the new book vending machine, installed in the hallway near the main entrance of the school, she said.
"That's so exciting for them," she said. "Students will be able to earn little tokens and they can get the books from tokens that they earn. Each month, teachers will be given tokens to give out in their classrooms and also the principal and specialists around the building, when they catch kids doing the right thing, or (through) positive office referrals, that's how they earn. And the books, they get to keep."
Ratcliff, now in her second year as media specialist at the school, also designed the machines to include the Hot Springs School District logo as well as the IB logo.
Park Magnet Principal Kristal Brandon said the schools were able to purchase the machines through a SOAR (Successful Outcomes for Arkansas Readers) grant. Receiving the grant at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said there were two major goals they hoped to accomplish: increase effective literacy instruction and acquire instructional materials for the district's kindergarten boot camp prior to the start of school.
"Our district decided to change up things a little bit once we got our (American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds. And so they took on the responsibility of the financial part of our boot camp and our school, along with the other schools, we decided to write an addendum and we put in the book vending machines," Brandon said.
"We wanted to incentivize reading, you know, 'How can we get more books in our kids' hands?' "How can we do something fun?' Everybody wants to get something out of a vending machine. And so that's kind of how that kind of came about and we were able to find a company that could work with us, work with branding, make sure that we had what we needed," she said.
The district received over $19,000 through grant funding, of which the book machines used only a small portion, she noted. Along with the one at Park Magnet, Main Street installed two in its building.
"We purchased one that would hold smaller picture books and then we purchased one that would hold chapter books for our older students," Kristen Gordon, principal at Main Street, said. "We actually have it planned to unveil to them; they have already seen them but they're super excited to find out how they can earn coins to be able to purchase books in the book vending machine."
At Main Street, students will be able to earn coins, or tokens, in two ways: the first is through positive behavior. If a student earns a positive office referral, they will be able to earn a coin. The second way is by improving their reading goals. If a student meets or exceeds their reading goal, they will receive a coin.
Brandon said they purchased a kit with the vending machines that include several different types of books for restocking. The schools' parent-teacher organization will also play a part in keeping them restocked on a continual basis.
Kristal Brandon, principal at Park Magnet, an IB World School, talks about the school's new book vending machines on Thursday inside the school. - Photo by Donald Cross of The Sentinel-Record
Park Magnet, an IB World School Library Media Specialist Amy Ratcliff helps a young student pick out a book from the new vending machine. - Photo by Donald Cross of The Sentinel-Record