Walking into the library at Lakeside Junior High School in Hot Springs might be a but of a surprise for someone from an older generation.
There is music playing and video screens going, some even being used as art. Books line a couple of walls, but most of the space is taken up with computers and tables where students are listening to a teacher, or just talking, which is encouraged.
Welcome to the library, or media center, as the sign now states, of today, under the direction of Stony Evans.
“I was told that an empty, quiet library is a useless resource,” he said, “so I want to make sure I have things going on for teachers and students.”
Evans said he was never an avid reader as a kid, mainly reading Batman comics and the Hardy Boys series.
That might be a surprising admission for a school librarian, but it is just
another of the surprising things about Evans, who was honored Monday as the Library Media Specialist of the Year by the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media.
The AAIM is a group of professional Arkansas educators, mostly librarians, dedicated to improving education through using media technology. The award was given at the group’s annual convention in Rogers.
“I was surprised when it was announced about four weeks ago,” Evans said. “I wasn’t aware I had been nominated by Rachel Shankles, the librarian for Lakeside High School.”
While he said the award is the biggest thing that has happened in his more than 17 years of teaching, Evans said he will be coming back to school early after he accepts the prize.
“When I’m not in the library, I miss it,” Evans said.
Another surprise for the award-winning librarian is that while this is his 18th year on a school faculty, it is only his fourth as a librarian and media specialist.
It all began with the saxophone, or perhaps with a vacuum cleaner.
“I like vacuum cleaners. I still do,” Evans said. “Maybe it’s the machinery, but I remember my mother saying that I told everyone that I wanted to be a vacuum-cleaner salesman when I grew up.”
However, from about age 12 on, Evans wanted to be a professional musician.
“I got into the school band in the seventh grade in 1985,” he said. I was taking lessons on a tenor saxophone, which was a stick about the same size I was.
Although he was born in Little Rock, Evans was raised in Bismarck and was attending school in the Hot Spring County community.
He was also in the band at Bismarck High School, where he came under the influence of Mike Copeland, the man who Evans said has been the greatest influence in his life.
“He is a great musician, and the students were just drawn to him,” Evans said.
Copeland’s influence would continue when, after earning a music degree from Ouachita Baptist University, Evans played the saxophone in bands around central Arkansas.
Life on the stage didn’t really turn out the way Evans said he had always imagined it, so he returned as Copeland’s assistant band director at Bismarck High and as director of the middle-school band Evans had played for just more than 10 years before.
Even with a band of 12- and 13-year-olds, Evans had as many as 60 students in his bands, including three jazz ensembles.
“A band program is a reflection of its director, and we had a great band director in Mike at the Bismarck schools,” Evans said. “The way Mike treated students, they just wanted to be part of the program.”
During his time at Bismarck, Evans joined another band — the 106th Army Band, part of the Arkansas National Guard in North Little Rock. In addition, Evans used his military benefits to attend the University of Central Arkansas and earn a degree in music education.
Evans enjoyed being a band leader and teacher for his hometown schools, but when hard times hit the school system in 2009, several positions were cut, including his.
He found a job in the Malvern School District, but having had one music job pulled out from under him, Evans had an alternative in mind.
“During the year with Malvern, I was working on my media certification,” he said. “I didn’t really get out of music. I was first looking at educational media as a second career, but the opportunity came up, and I made the decision to take it.”
But not before he had another moment of great influence on his approach to education.
“I was talking to a veteran Arkansas band director, Bill Hickman,” Evans said. “He said always take the positive approach by giving out compliments. And he told me, ‘Make it real,’ that kids could always tell a fake.”
Evans said he started taking that approach with his younger students, and he soon saw the results.
“It showed, so I changed how I looked at classes,” he said. “I could now say something wasn’t going well because they knew they came first with me, and I was in their corner.”
It is an approach Evans continues to use at Lakeside, even though he does not come in contact with students as he did in the role of teacher.
“I want the kids to know my name,” he said. “I want them to know I’m one of the teachers, and this library is a classroom for them.”
Evan said he discovered that a key to leadership is to develop professional relationships with the teachers.
“I want the library to be a collaborative effort with many teachers,” he said. “I want to know their classroom goals and how I can help with technology.”
Lakeside High School Librarian Shankles, who was in on the hiring of Evans, wrote about how the media specialist wanted to help teachers.
“When Stony Evans was hired by Lakeside School District in the fall of 2010, he mentioned to me at the high school that he would like to team up and teach some technology units on Tuesdays, after school for the teachers,” Shankles wrote in the newsletter of the AAIM. “Usually, [the teachers] were tired when they arrived and excited when they left.”
Shankles said the program went over well and caught the attention of the school district’s administration.
Evans also took a more active role, helping teachers with special presentations connected to their class studies.
“We decided on a book talk about Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown, by Eric Clehm,” Evans said. “I and my assistant, Ray Borel, also a member of the National Guard, did the presentation dressed in our Army Combat Uniforms and presented the information in a military setting.”
Evans said their presentation had a big impact on the class.
“The kids loved it, and the teachers enjoyed it, so we then built another one.”
Their next presentation was about the Dust Bowl years and a talk to ninth-graders about To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, including music of the era.
“We brought in a jazz trio and a vocalist,” Evans said. “It went over well.”
Now they are working on a presentation for two math classes.
While Evans said it is always a surprise for some students when they learn he is a musician, he does play a couple of times a year with the school wind ensembles. He also picks up jobs performing with bands in the region, although it is usually as a replacement, he said.
Still, just as with former President Bill Clinton, another Hot Springs saxophone player, there is the desire to play. Evans said he has a dream of playing someday in a big arena before an audience of thousands.
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or wbryan@arkansasonline.com.