Students and teachers often need a place to hold meetings, work, and study. At Billings Central, those needs are fulfilled by the library and upper conference room.
The BCCHS library has several purposes, although it is not typically used as a traditional library would be. According to Olivia Umphrey, the Accessibility Coordinator at Billings Central, “We need to have a library for academic accreditation, but it’s mostly used for other purposes. Teachers will send students down to the library to test, sports teams and other groups will sometimes hold meetings there, teachers will have luncheons, classes like Journalism have been held there, and it’s used as a general work area for students.” So, while the library does contain several shelves of books, it’s not just for that purpose. Umphrey explained, “We don’t really have a regular library here at Central. I’d like to. I love libraries, but our library is used for many different purposes.”
In the past, the library looked very different than it does today. Principal Nolan Trafton recalled what it was like when he attended Central as a student, saying, “Ms. Umphrey’s room, Mr. Derrig’s room, and the current library all made up the library when I was at BC. There were no walls dividing the three areas…[it] included a large counter and desk for the librarian. It also had some couches and chairs.”
Trafton also recalled what the upper conference room, another space utilized similarly to the library, was used for when he was a student, saying, “I think the conference room was Mr. Hawbaker’s office when I first got to Central as a freshman. Later, it was converted into the conference room you see today.”
Like the library, the upper conference room is used for a variety of different functional purposes. According to Trafton, “The upper conference room is used for meetings and a common study space for after school hours.”
One student who employs the use of the upper conference room is 11th grader Cole Hoffman. He uses it as a workspace, saying, “I often use the conference room while at Central before and after school hours. I generally use the room to study or relax.”
While he could do this work at home, he often prefers the room at Central for scheduling and its environment. As he described, “I believe it’s a better work environment partially just due to the surrounding academic environment, however the spacious desk is helpful as well. I usually find that there’s a degree of privacy provided…the benefit of this is that it upholds a healthy work/stress relief balance that I believe contributes to quality work.”
While students such as Hoffman find the rooms useful to work in, English teacher Amelia Bergum offered a different perspective. For the majority of this last school year, she’s been hosting her Journalism class in the library. “Last year, we had about 12 to 15 students in journalism, and then this year, when they made it a practical arts credit, we had an influx of 28 students,” she explained. “I can’t really accommodate all of them in here [her classroom], so that really led it to there [the library]. Also, we thought that possibly the practicality of being able to work with large tables would be a more collaborative environment.”
After months of class held in the library, she recently made the decision to relocate Journalism back to her own room. She described some of the changes that went with hosting in the library, saying, “It was a rat race. I have my own kids, so I’m walking in pretty late, and run upstairs and then down there [to the library]. That’s a reason why we’ve been meeting in here [the classroom] the last week. It’s just so much easier with my own resources, and if I think of something on the fly, I have the ability to grab what I need.”
She confirmed that, from now on, Journalism will be held in her room. She added, “It’s just more comfortable for me to work here.” Since changing back, she’s already seen improvements, saying, “I noticed that attendance is on time; a lot better. Down there, I was having kids walking in 15-20 minutes late, which when you have a class that’s 30-35 minutes long, that’s half of the period….I also think it brings a little bit more of that formality feel up here than it does in the library.”
Evidently, while teachers may typically prefer to hold meetings and class in their room, where they have resources, the library and upper conference room at Central are a valuable resource for students, larger meetings, and other various needs.