Putnam Schools Moving Along with ‘Rolling Reader’

The Putnam County School System is closer to seeing its Rolling Reader mobile library being used across the county.

PreK-5 Curriculum Supervisor Jill Ramsey said the bus is currently at Monterey High School as CTE students work on prepping the Rolling Reader’s interior.

“They’ve laid the floor and they’re waiting on the outdoor turf carpet to go on the inside of it,” Ramsey said. “We’ve got all the mechanical things done for the bus, it’s all set to go. Two things left after we do the inside – we need to wrap the bus and name the bus.”

Ramsey said PCSS is having a contest between the county’s elementary schools to give students the chance to name the bus themselves.

“Each school will be able to submit one entry from children’s submissions of what they think the bus should be called,” Ramsey said. “Next week we’ll be meeting as a committee to decide what that name is going to be based on all the entries from the elementary schools, so we’re excited about that.”

Ramsey said the district hopes to have the bus interior completed and prepared to wrap.

“Our plan is sometime in November we should have the interior and the wrapping done and working on stocking the bus with books,” Ramsey said. “We’ll share with the public what the first event will be. Whoever gets to name the bus – whatever school wins that contest – that’s where we’ll have the ribbon cutting… and then the bus will be on the road after that.”

The Rolling Reader was supposed to be on the road by now, but scheduling conflicts and delays in funding pushed the project back from spring to fall.

The purpose of the Rolling Reader is to provide additional reading opportunities to Putnam County students. PCSS approved a partnership in March with First National Bank of Tennessee to receive funding for renovating a school bus into a mobile library.