Otselic Valley Central School District

Someone new is coming to the Otselic Valley Library! A new Library Media Specialist will join us next week following the well-deserved retirement of our own Mrs. Julie Hammer. We will sorely miss Mrs. Hammer, including the remote support she's been providing to OV, but our library grows on. It's now a pleasure to welcome Mrs. Cindy Buerkle to Otselic Valley. Cindy Buerkle comes to Otselic Valley from DCMO BOCES where she supported the school library programs in the region for 3-1/2 years as the School Library System Coordinator. Cindy is co-author of the NYS School Library Program Evaluation Rubric (S L P), led the regional initiative for the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, and serves on the board of the Finger Lakes Library System (F L L S). In addition to her Master’s in Library and Information Science, Cindy has degrees in Electronics Engineering Technology, Physical Education, and Education Leadership. Cindy’s interests and experiences are broad. Cindy’s goal is to help young people maintain their sense of wonder and curiosity about the world they live in and their desire to engage with it - discovering more about themselves, seeking answers to questions, asking questions that no one has ever asked, and empowering them to be both leaders of their own learning and creators of their own communities. She has a particular passion for small rural schools. Cindy’s passion for small rural schools led her to serve as the McGraw Central School District school board president and her role in the DCMO BOCES region. For 10 years, Cindy oversaw a large, bustling school library program at Cortland Junior-Senior High School. She developed and taught an engaging Information Literacy course using a hybrid learning model, and developed a successful 7-12 reading program that focused on reading development for each student from the disinterested or struggling to the high achievers. Cindy lives in Solon, NY in an off-the-grid solar home that she and her husband designed and built. Cindy enjoys backpacking, hiking, cross-country skiing, gardening, and genealogy. Cindy truly believes that libraries can change lives. She looks forward to fostering a library program integral to Otselic Valley’s mission to educate and inspire every student to achieve excellence. Welcome!