The Portland Public Schools have been awarded $25,000 from The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation to purchase books for the libraries of each of the district’s three middle schools:  Lyman Moore, King and Lincoln.  Each school’s library will be able to buy about 400 books.  The books will benefit students who are English language learners and some of the funds also will be used to expand the libraries’ collections with books representing culturally diverse perspectives.

The books written specifically for English language learners will bridge the gap between the multilingual students’ current level of English proficiency and the texts written for English speakers in the middle school level.  The announcement came late this afternoon from the Portland Public School Department.