Media Center

Beachside Montessori Village's Collection click here.

2025-2026

Beachside Montessori Village

Nancy Long, Principal

Christine Cidoni, Literacy Coach

Robyn Eberhardt, Media Clerk

 

 

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary  4

District Strategic Plan 2025  4

School Mission Statement  4

School Community  4

Purpose of Collection Development Policy  4

A Collection Development Plan Serves Several Important Purposes: 5

Library Program    5

School Analysis  6

School Enrollment & Demographics Data   6

Federal Race Category  6

Scope of the Collection  6

Collection Development  7

Selection of Materials  7

Responsibility  7

Criteria for Selection of Print and Non-Print Materials  7

Selection Tools  8

Gifts and Donations  8

Collection Maintenance  9

Reconsideration of Materials  9

Opt-Out Form    9

Procedures for Objections to Library Materials and Reading Lists Objection Process  9

Superintendent Review Committee  9

Phase 1:  Complete Objection to Library/Instructional Materials Form    9

Phase 2:  Notifications  10

Phase 3:  Superintendent’s Review Committee Review    10

Phase 4:  SRC’s Recommendation to the School Board   10

Phase 5:  Appeal 10

Collection Analysis  12

Collection Analysis by Category  13

Strategic Focus  15

Budget and Purchasing Plan  16

Annual Budget  2025-2026  16

Purchasing Plan 2025-2026  16

Appendix  18

Library Bill of Rights  19

Library Reading Materials Opt-Out Form 2024/2025 (All Grades) 20

Objection to Library/Specific Materials Form    21

District Strategic Plan 2025

Broward County Public Schools is the sixth-largest school district in the United States and the second-largest in Florida. The district serves more than 256,021 students at 231 schools and is one of the largest employers in South Florida, with 30,529 team members.

Vision: Educating today’s students to succeed in tomorrow’s world.

Mission: Educating all students to reach their highest potential.

Core Values: Student Focus, Teaching Excellence, Accountability, Respect, Safety

School Community

Beachside Montessori Village serves 791 students enrolled in grades PK-8. The student population’s ethnicity comprises 39.6 % Hispanic and 60 % Non-Hispanic students. Additionally, we serve a diverse population made up of 46 % White, 6 % Black, 0 % Native,

3 % Asian/Pacific, and 5 %Multicultural students.

 

The administration includes Principal Nancy Long and Assistant Principal Gigi Forsman. Beachside Montessori Village is proud to offer the many unique programs which provide students with opportunities. We are a magnet Montessori school, and we serve students from pre-k-8^th.

Purpose of Collection Development Policy

A school library collection development plan serves as a roadmap to guide library materials' selection, acquisition, and maintenance. It ensures the collection aligns with Florida statutes, the District’s Strategic Plan Goals and Guardrails, the school's curriculum, and student needs by providing a framework for choosing resources that best support student learning across different subjects and interests while also addressing diversity and appropriate content levels.

A Collection Development Plan Serves Several Important Purposes: Statutory Compliance:  A Collection Development Plan establishes the framework for adhering to the mandatory state statute, requiring each district school board to adopt procedures for developing library media center collections and to post these procedures on each school's website.

District Alignment: Aligns with Broward County Public Schools 2022-2027 Strategic Plan Goals and Guardrails.

Supporting curriculum:  The plan should directly connect library materials to the school's curriculum, ensuring students access relevant study resources.

Student needs assessment: It considers students' diverse needs, including reading levels, interests, and learning styles, to select materials that cater to a wide range of abilities.

Selection criteria:  The plan outlines clear criteria for choosing materials, such as quality, accuracy, relevance, and alignment with school values.

Budget management:  It helps allocate library funds effectively by prioritizing purchase needs based on identified gaps in the collection.

Collection maintenance:  The plan includes procedures for discarding outdated or damaged materials and replacing them with current resources.

Community engagement:  It involves collaboration with students, teachers, administrators, and parents to gather input on collection needs.

Currently, Beachside Montessori Village does meet the recommended standards for the number of books per student.

Library Program

We do not have a media specialist at our school, so our library is an open media center. There is a flexible schedule that allows each class to come down and utilize the media center to check out books. Our middle school students can utilize the resources for research projects or check out books during their scheduled time. Our school utilizes Beanstack, Sora, and Epic.

 

Scope Of Collection:

Our media center consists of basic collections of both elementary and middle fiction and non-fiction books. There is a section of reference materials and a professional collection that is primarily Montessori books that correlate and support our Magnet Program.

 

The district provides online resources to ensure equitable access to information for teaching and learning to improve student performance and achievement.  Students and teachers can use Clever or Canvas to access age-appropriate materials that support educational and social-emotional needs through the following online resources:  Follett Destiny Online Library Catalog, Gale Online Databases and eBooks, Beanstack, and Sora by Overdrive.

 

School media centers provide access to library media materials that eliminate educational barriers based on gender, race/ethnicity, national origin, color, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, or other protected group status and that are free of bias, stereotypes, distortions, and prejudices. This includes the ability to obtain information in a variety of formats -electronic as well as print, without fear of censorship or reprisal.

Collection Development

Collection Development is the process of providing quality materials and equipment for the library media center. The goal of collection development is to ensure the collection has information sources in adequate quantity and variety to support student’s academic and personal interest needs. The media specialist is charged with leading this process with the input of teachers, students, and parents.  Resources are selected according to principles of intellectual freedom and provide all learners with access to information representing diverse points of view.

Selection and Evaluation Criteria (Drawn from BCPS Policy 4120)

Selection of Materials

Funded by the state, district, and school, the media collection will contain a wide range of appropriate materials on varying levels of difficulty in various existing and emerging formats. It will focus on materials that address different learning styles and levels. 

The School Board of Broward County is legally responsible for all matters relating to the operation of the Broward County Schools. The professionally trained media specialist is responsible for coordinating the selection of instructional materials for the School Media Center, consulting with the principal, teachers, and students.

 

*In the event there is not a school library media specialist, the Principal and/or Administrative Designee will assume the responsibility for identifying and selecting an instructional staff member(s) to engage in the selection process to ensure materials support the needs of the school community.

 

NOTE:  Clerical personnel should NOT be responsible for library material collection development and/or resource management and selection of materials.

 

1. Materials are selected to support the mission of Beachside Montessori Village.
2. Materials are selected to enrich and support the curriculum and the educational, emotional, and recreational needs of the users.
3. Materials shall be appropriate for the age, emotional development, ability levels, learning styles, and social development of the students.
4. Materials shall represent differing viewpoints of controversial issues so that users may be motivated to engage in critical analysis of such issues, to explore their own beliefs, attitudes, and behavior, and to make informed choices in their lives.

In keeping with the Library Bill of Rights, materials will be considered based on the following: 

• Needs of the curriculum, learning/teaching styles of students, faculty, and staff 
• Possible use of material (including small or large group instruction, in-depth study) 

• Level of physical, artistic, and literary quality 
• Representation of multiple viewpoints 
• Treatment of subject and lack of cultural bias 
• Accuracy and currency of information 
• Scope of coverage 

• Support of inquiry and critical thinking skills 
• Relationship of the material to the overall collection 
• Cost, packaging, and documentation 

The following professional resources are available to assist the media specialist in the selection process.  However, selection is not limited to the use of these tools.

 

Follett Titlewave:  Titlewave is a collection development and curriculum support tool for school libraries, librarians, and educators, featuring professionally curated content from Follett library services and support tools that help you find the most relevant materials.

Mackin:  Mackin uses highly acclaimed review sources (AudioFile, Booklist, Horn Book Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Library Media Connection, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal).  It places them in one convenient location to make the best selections for school libraries and students.

Periodicals:  School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Horn Book, Library Media Connection, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Young Adult Library Services, Knowledge Quest.

 

Books: Children’s & YA Book Lists: Best Books, Best Books for Young Adult Readers; Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High Students; Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Choices for a Generation; and Senior High School Library Catalog.

 

Note: Common Sense Media, Amazon, Goodreads, The Manga Critic and Reviews from paid reviewing sources may be used in conjunction with professional reviewing sources.

Gifts/Donations

Any gifted or donated items must meet the same selection criteria as all other materials—the criteria listed in Florida Statute 1006.28 and Broward County School Board Policy 4120.

Removing materials from a library collection that are no longer educationally appropriate is as an equally important process as selecting new items of high quality. The library media specialist and/or instructional staff should have an ongoing process to evaluate the library media collection and to keep the collection relevant to the changing needs of the curriculum, personal interests, and needs of students. Evaluation of items under consideration for removal from the Library Media Center should be based on criteria related to the educational value of the resources. The removal (weeding) of library materials from the collection is the responsibility of a skilled professional library media specialist.

Weeded items should not be disposed of or discarded at the school site. Weeded items should be boxed and identified as DISCARDED or WITHDRAWN and scheduled for pick up by Procurement and Warehousing Services by completing the enclosed Warehouse Assistance Request Form.

Inquiries regarding the appropriateness of particular library and supplemental instructional materials are a normal part of the process of providing a wide variety of resources for student use.

Parents may submit their request to limit their student’s access to materials in the school or classroom library by submitting a completed Opt-Out Form to the school principal.