A New School Year Begins with a First Library
A New School Year Begins with a First Library
There are few things more rewarding than watching a young child discover the magic of a book.
This past week, the Citrus County Education Foundation held its first “First Library” reading event of the 2026-27 school year. It is the first of six opportunities this year to bring community members into our classrooms to read with some of our youngest students.
Community members from across Citrus County participate in these special events. Civic organizations, community leaders, library staff, first responders, educators and others take time to walk into a classroom, sit down with students and share a story.
And then something especially important happens.
Each student gets to take that book home.
One of the special opportunities I have through my involvement with the Citrus County Education Foundation is being able to participate as one of those readers. This time, I had the opportunity to read with Ms. Cayley Zeris’ Pre-K class at Citrus Springs Elementary.
The book we shared was Biscuit Goes to School, a sweet beginner reader written by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and illustrated by Pat Schories. There is something pretty special about sitting in a classroom with young students, reading a story, answering their questions and watching their faces as the story unfolds.
But the real magic begins when they take that book home.
The First Library initiative has roots going back decades. It originally began through the generosity and vision behind Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and, over the years, evolved into the Citrus County Education Foundation’s own First Library initiative.
Today, it continues to make a meaningful difference in the lives of Citrus County children.
The program focuses on Pre-K and kindergarten classrooms in our public schools. The goal is simple but important: to help make sure every child has an opportunity to develop a love of reading and has books of their own at home.
The need is real.
Research has shown a significant difference in the amount of one-on-one reading children experience before entering first grade. Children from middle-income homes may enter first grade having experienced more than 1,000 hours of one-on-one reading, while children from economically challenged families may have experienced fewer than 100.
That is an enormous gap before a child has even started elementary school. We cannot control every circumstance into which a child is born, but we can work together to help close that gap. That is what programs like First Library are about.
When students receive a book of their own to keep and share with their families, it gives children and parents another opportunity to read together at home. It creates another learning experience and can help establish a positive family tradition around books.
CCEF shares research highlighted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that demonstrates the importance of reading proficiency by third grade. Students reading at or above grade level by third grade are significantly more likely to continue successfully through school, graduate and eventually enter the workforce.
A book may seem like a small thing. For a child, it can be the beginning of something much bigger.
Since October 2013, the Citrus County Education Foundation has partnered with Citrus County Schools to bring First Library into our classrooms. What began with Pre-K classrooms has grown to include kindergarten, reaching children during some of the most important early years of their educational journey.
I believe this is a great example of what can happen when a community decides that education belongs to all of us.
Our teachers cannot do it alone. Our schools cannot do it alone. Parents cannot do it alone.
But when schools, families, community organizations, businesses, foundations and volunteers work together, we can create opportunities that extend far beyond what any one organization could accomplish by itself.
First Library is just one example.
The Citrus County Education Foundation strategically partners with Citrus County Schools on numerous initiatives designed to support students, teachers and lifelong learning. These partnerships provide opportunities and resources that strengthen the educational journey of our children.
And First Library would not be possible without the generous support of its community partners: Duke Energy, Suncoast Credit Union, Citrus Libraries, Black Diamond Foundation Inc., Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Inverness, Altrusa International Citrus County, Dollar General Literacy Foundation and In Loving Memory of Deborah Kamlot-Wright.
As a school board member, I am especially grateful for the people who give their time to walk into a classroom and read a book to a child, and for the community partners who help make those moments possible.
Sometimes we look for complicated solutions to complicated challenges.
Sometimes the answer begins with something remarkably simple:
A teacher. A child. A community volunteer. And a book.
This past week, Citrus County children began building their own first library.
Our hope is that those books will not simply sit on a shelf. We hope they will be opened, read, reread and shared with parents, grandparents and siblings.
Most of all, we hope they become the beginning of a lifelong love of reading.
Because when we give a child a book, we are giving them much more than a story.
We are giving them a door to another world, a chance to imagine, an opportunity to learn and perhaps the first chapter of a lifetime of possibilities.
To learn more about the Citrus County Education Foundation and its many programs supporting Citrus County students and schools, visit www.citruseducation.org.
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There are moments in history that divide time into before and after.
In Citrus County Schools, September 11 provides that opportunity.
Welcome to the 2026–2027 school year in the Citrus County School District!
Today marks a milestone that feels both incredibly historic and deeply personal. As a nation, we gather to celebrate our Semiquincentennial, marking exactly 250 years since we declared our independence as a democratic republic. For many of my generation, this day naturally pulls our minds back to our youth. We can vividly remember as children in 1976 when our country celebrated its grand Bicentennial. So much has happened in those 50 years, with the world transforming in ways we could scarcely have imagined, yet one thing has not changed. That enduring constant is our deep love for our country, and that is what we try daily to instill in the hearts and lives of the next generation of Americans.