Rockwood Summit Librarian Wins State Award, Library Earns DESE 'Exemplary' Status

Margaret Sullivan, Rockwood Summit High librarian and lead librarian for the Rockwood School District, is the Missouri Association of School Librarians' (MASL) School Librarian of the Year for 2024-2025. The Rockwood Summit library also earned Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Exemplary School Library Program recognition for the fifth straight year.

Sullivan was celebrated for her award at the MASL conference April 14, then honored with a prize patrol of colleagues and students at Rockwood Summit on April 16.

"This is just so flattering because MASL is a group of amazing librarians," she said. "I've been involved in the organization for a long time, so I know a lot of the people and the great work they do with students and teachers, advocating for all students to have access to quality school library programs. To be singled out by that group of people is extremely flattering."

Sullivan was one of 11 librarians from around the state under consideration for the MASL award after earning regional honors in January.

Rockwood Summit is also one of only six libraries from around the state to earn DESE Exemplary School Library Program (ESLP) status this year. Led by Sullivan, Dr. Greg Baum and assistants Jessica Hausman and Deb Humphrey, Rockwood Summit is the only school in the state to earn this recognition for five straight years.

The ESLP application consists of providing evidence for 21 different indicators across five main categories -- instruction, leadership, library environment, library management and staffing. The applications are evaluated and assessed by a team of school librarians from across the state and earn 2 points (Exemplary) or 1 point (Approaching) for each indicator. In order to receive the DESE recognition, a school library program must score 38 out of 42 possible points without receiving a score of 0 on any indicator.

"The great thing about that program is the way they categorize things makes you look at it through a different lens. That has really been rejuvenating," Sullivan said. "It really encourages us to try new things. We don't want to submit the same thing each year, so we're always looking for new ideas we can incorporate into our library. It encourages you to keep things fresh." 

April is School Library Month, a time to celebrate the essential role that strong school libraries play in transforming learning.

The goal of the Rockwood library media program is to prepare graduates who have gained the ability to access, evaluate, select and utilize the most useful information from a vast collection of sources and formats.

"Literacy is hugely important," Sullivan said. "You can use the library to help instill a love of reading and a librarian to help match every student to the book that is going to get them excited about reading. We can also help with other types of literacy -- media literacy, civic literacy -- just exposing students to new ideas and letting them see multiple perspectives."