📖 A school library renaissance | Morning Newsletter

Hi, Philly. It should be another in a sequence of comfortable days with highs in the 80s, but don’t be surprised if the skies aren’t especially blue: The Canadian wildfire haze we saw last summer is back.

This Thursday’s lead story is a reminder that the school year is nearly upon us. In what sounds like a season-four plot line from Abbott Elementary, the district is poised to become a leader in restoring school libraries in urban districts.

And before closing his family’s Wonderland Pier, Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian was on shaky financial footing. Here’s what you need to know today.

— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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When kids attend a school with a library, studies show, they achieve higher scores on reading tests — a would-be asset in Philadelphia, where two-thirds of students can’t read on grade level.

📕 Yet following decades of budget cuts, the district last year had the equivalent of just two full-time, certified librarians for all of its 216 schools. Many of those schools filled the gap with volunteers, or didn’t fill it at all.

📘 Now, a federal grant will enable the district to hire a director of school libraries for the first time in years. With the funding, the district is also tasked with building out a national model for underfunded urban districts to restore their own library programs.

📗 Part of the challenge? Identifying pathways to librarian certification in a city where dwindling job opportunities has led to fewer education programs to train potential librarians.

📙 Education reporter Kristen A. Graham explains how the state of Philadelphia school libraries became so dire, and why advocates are optimistic that change is coming.

P.S. In other school news, a Montgomery County district is banning cell phones in middle and high school classrooms in an effort to minimize learning distractions.

Get in your last rides on the Giant Wheel and merry-go-round. After 94 years, the Gillian family is shutting down Ocean City’s Wonderland Pier in October.

In his announcement, current operator Mayor Gillian attributed the closure to financial challenges, saying the amusement park was “no longer a viable business.”

It’s not necessarily a surprise to those aware of Gillian’s personal and professional finances, including mounting debts, liens, and lawsuits across several properties.

Reporters Amy S. Rosenberg and Ryan W. Briggs have the story.

A 33-year-old Fishtown resident this week became the first Philadelphian to compete at the world championships for which (slightly goofy-looking) sport?

A) Quidditch

B) Korfball

C) Soapbox racing

D) Dodgeball

Think you know? Check your answer.

⚾ Cheering: Council Rock Newtown in their first Little League World Series game tonight.

🎉 Attending: Urban Art Fest 52′s Saturday block party on 52nd Street.

🏀 Hoping: Texas native Kacey Musgraves really is a ... Sixers fan?

American Fiction actor Erika Alexander will soon have a section of Master Street named after her to commemorate this North Philadelphia theater where she was discovered.

FATHERED METEOR

Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Maddi Biletz, who solved Wednesday’s anagram: Anthony Bourdain. Cherry Hill native Dominic Sessa of The Holdovers fame may play the fellow New Jerseyan in an upcoming biopic.

🦧 One last zoological thing: On Wednesday, the Philadelphia Zoo introduced Jambi, the first Sumatran orangutan born there in 15 years. The three-week-old primate is considered a “major conservation win” for the critically endangered species.

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday. Back at it tomorrow.

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