By Lindsay Peyton

When TuesD Chambers was hired as librarian at Ballard High School last summer, she inherited her predecessor’s dream.

The previous librarian Debra Arthur had a vision for a renovated space, which would focus more about collaborative learning and technology than serving as a silent study hall. 

And Arthur had already applied for the Farmers Insurance Thank A Teacher Dream Big Grant in hopes of making her dream a reality.

When Chambers took over the post, she was charged with stepping in and getting the votes required to win the grand prize of $100,000.

Now, Ballard High School is one of 15 finalists in the country for the award – and the only school selected from the Pacific Northwest. 

From those few finalists, five grants will be awarded – all based on which school receives the most votes. 

Anyone can help the cause, Chambers explained. 

There are five steps to take. Go to www.farmers.com/thank-americas-teachers/vote-for-a-teacher/vote-100k-proposal/ and find TuesD Chambers in the first row. 

Click on vote. Check the required boxes, enter your email address and hit "submit.” Then check your email account to verify the vote. 

Chambers hopes that members of the community join the voting effort – and vote often. 

“It’s not one and done,” she said. “You vote every day. Vote now. Anyone who cares about libraries and cares about kids can vote.”

Ballard High has until the end of the month to collect as many votes as possible.

The reinvented space would be called the “John Stanford Learning Commons at Ballard High School.”

Chambers can picture exactly what it would look like. “You would see this bustling beehive of students doing all sorts of work,” she said. 

Some teens would be reading and using a digital check-out system to take their books home. Others would be engrossed in group projects and classroom activities – all configured in different ways, made possible with more mobile furniture. 

A virtual reality club would be coding and creating games in one corner, while a group of musicians would be projecting their work on a screen, suggesting new lyrics and modifying melodies together. 

“There would be other students Skyping with Bolivia about environmental problems – and what we’re doing in Seattle,” Chambers said. 

Then, the bell would ring and a whole new configuration would take place in the library. 

“They’d move the furniture in a totally different way,” she said. “It would look different every time. No day would be the same.”

Chambers hopes to obtain the funding for new furniture, more technology and increased connectivity. 

If the school receives the grant, Chambers would reach out to teachers, administrators, students and area residents for feedback on ways to make the library better. 

“Kids these days are doing such amazing work,” she said. “Giving them a better space to do it in would be incredible. We need space where students can explore and share. We need to not only transform the space, but to transform their educational experience and then let them transform the world.”

Senior Jackson Croy, 17, has been helping Chambers encourage the vote through the school paper. 

“This is really a great idea, and I hope we get the grant,” he said. “The library is underutilized. We need to update the way we use the space – and take full advantage of the way kids want to learn.”

Croy and his classmates are asking everyone they know to take time to vote. “We’re spreading the word as much as possible,” he said.