By Eve Woods & Kevin Salazar
After 20 years from its last major makeover, Pueblo’s Cajero Library is at last undergoing new significant renovations coming to the Warrior community in early 2022.
Ms. Marsh-Jean Burrola, Pueblo’s librarian, shares her enthusiasm.
“I can’t wait to feel how clean the [renovated] library is going to feel!” she said.
Stained, dirty carpet throughout the library will be removed, replaced with tile in most areas. All of the old furniture—several dozen tables and countless bookshelves—has already been removed, donated mostly to teachers. A lot of new equipment is going to be added to this renovation project.
“There were times when it breathing felt icky in the library,” Burrola said. “Sometimes it was very uncomfortable to be in there.”
“I’ve been here for four years, and I’ve seen the same old carpet every day,” she added.
According to Burrola, these new renovations will be costly but a worthy investment for our current and future students.
“The library is the core of most schools,” Burrola said, “and that’s especially true of Pueblo’s library. I anticipate that more teachers and students will be utilizing its resources once the project is completed hopefully during the third quarter.”
Burrola said that her students have helped her nearly since the beginning of the school year to temporarily move books to other locations.
“Moving tons of books was grueling, and I’m grateful for the help that I received,” she said.”
One of Burrola’s students, junior Samuel Gonzalez, said, “Helping Ms. B [Burrola] was a pleasure. She always told me and the other students how lucky she was to have us to assist her.”
Gonzalez added, “At times, it seemed that we’d never finish packing all those books, but slowly but surely, we had it all cleared out, ready for the major renovations. Finding boxes was challenging, but through a lot of teachers’ donations, we got thousands of books out of there.”
Burrola would like to thank Principal Frank Rosthenhausler for supporting her vision of a much needed and modern library.
She would like to especially thank Assistant Principal David Montano for being instrumental in finding “homes” for the old furniture for teachers’ classrooms.