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The Media Center at Flagler Palm Coast High School was underused prior to 2003. A grass-roots effort began to increase usage and create a welcoming, intentionally inviting atmosphere for our students. Through the efforts of FPC media and teaching staff, students, administration, parents, community members and businesses, a major renovation began.

Students were polled for design preferences, through the placement of design boards in the media center and announcements. Our drafting class, working with students and media staff, developed a design that opened the media center, creating many different seating areas. Volunteers (FPC students and staff) painted the walls in bold but soothing colors. Grant monies allowed the purchase of soft, attractive chairs. New, appealing books were purchased. The media center started filling with students and the project started to show results.

A CMPS (Community Problem Solving) team became involved, and the project advanced dramatically. Through donations of goods and services, this group raised approximately $80,000.00. An architect designed a Media Café, Food Service paid for design and construction, a company added necessary plumbing, and Café FAME was built and opened. Old carpet was pulled out and a tiled area, conducive to food service, was created. Tiling was supervised by one of our parents, and our students and teachers did the hard work. Another parent donated café tables and umbrellas. The students involved in the project advanced to state level. Their dedication, innovation, persistence, and creativity were recognized when they were awarded an international grand championship at the Community Problem Solving International Conference held at the University of Kentucky.

The renovation caused book circulation to triple; circulation is often higher. It is not unusual to check out more than 50 books before school starts. This is unprecedented at FPC. Several programs encouraged our students to read: Bulldog’s Best Books (2 sentence book reviews shown on a large screen TV), Literary Lunches (students and staff read the same book and meet during lunch to discuss and eat a great lunch), Bulldogs Read (student recommendations for purchase) and… our NIE grant.

Each morning, the newspapers are spread around the Café FAME tables and it is a great pleasure to see students snacking and READING the newspaper! At first, the papers were neat and together on the tables. Now we are pleased to see sections passed around, discussions ongoing, and newspapers everywhere. It is apparent that the papers are read.

Lorna Moschetti
Media Specialist
Flagler Palm Coast High School

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