Secretary of State Holds Up Partnership Library as Model for State

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft held up the Worth County Partnership Library as a model for the rest of the state to follow during a visit Tuesday, September 21st. He said that nobody else in the state had integrated like this. "I love this idea," he said. "There was that roadblock that said things couldn't be done, but it was," added State Rep. Allen Andrews, who was in attendance. "People rallied around the idea."

Also in attendance were Superintendent Chris Healy, Public Library board members Sharon Dowis and Denise Rowen, School Librarian Nanci Drury, volunteer assistant Judith Matteson, and Public Librarian Riley Drury. 

Ashcroft has been a regular guest at Worth County; one of his most recent visits was when he delivered hand sanitizers, masks, and other safety equipment to Worth County and other election officials around the state so that Missouri could hold municipal elections in the middle of the pandemic last year. He logged over 5,000 miles during that stretch. 

"You're about equipping people with resources so that they know what to do," said Ashcroft. He said that critical thinking is a must in today's society. "If you teach people how to think, it makes a lifetime of difference," he said. While he is not a fan of excessive government spending, Ashcroft has been lobbying the legislature during his tenure as Secretary of State for more library funding, saying that it repays itself many times. For instance, he said he visited another library that saw its usage plunge during the pandemic and still sat down and figured out that they were getting a return on investment of 3-1. 

Andrews said that libraries were more relevant than ever and praised Ashcroft for standing up to those who wanted to cut state library funding. 

Returning to the topic of education, Ashcroft said that we needed to reevaluate education in a lot of ways. Student test scores went down during the pandemic, and he wanted to see schools meeting students where they are at as opposed to expecting them to know certain things by a certain grade level. "If you teach students how to think critically, anything is possible," he said. He said that the pandemic created a real opportunity to make changes in how students were taught.

Rowen said that as a mother who homeschooled her kids, all three of them had different needs. "We want to see how we can get the public interested in the library," she said when talking about the board's goals. The new librarian, Riley Drury, has built a website for the library for both the school library and the public library. The website is located at www.wocolibrary.com.