Baltimore City Public Schools Named 2025 Richard M. Robinson Literacy Champion and Receives Library Transformation

Scholastic, in collaboration with the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), a coalition of 81 of the nation’s largest urban public-school systems, has announced Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) has received the 2025 Richard M. Robinson Literacy Champion Award. Named in honor of the late Scholastic Chairman and CEO Richard (Dick) Robinson, this annual award recognizes a CGCS member school district for demonstrated progress in advancing reading achievement. 

As part of the honor, City Schools has selected its own Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School to receive a library transformation that will include more than 18,000 new books and educational programming. The new books are high-quality and engaging text, which can be used as take-home book packs, reading libraries, classroom collections and educational programming. This is in addition to the 10 books each student took home over the summer.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, school principal Amanda Rice shared her appreciation saying: 

 “If you put the books in front of the children, they will read them. Everything will happen automatically. They’ll grow as readers, they’ll grow as learners, they’ll grow as leaders. So, it means everything to me to see them get this brand-new library.”

To learn more about the ribbon-cutting ceremony, watch WBAL-TV’s coverage here: ’It means everything to me’: New library opens at Baltimore’s Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School