REDMOND — Pia Alliende read aloud from the children’s book, “Playing Lotería,” and when she came across Spanish words in the story she emphasized them, then signaled to the students sitting on the floor in front of her to repeat them.

After Alliende, Redmond School District’s librarian, finished the story in Hugh Hartman Elementary School’s new bilingual library, the dozens of students and their families moved to the cafeteria to play lotería, a traditional Latin American game similar to bingo.

The event that took place Thursday night is part of a monthly bilingual family engagement night called Library in my Pajamas. Each month has a theme, and a book written by an author from an underrepresented group is selected.

October’s theme was Hispanic Heritage.

“The library is the best place for getting people together,” Alliende said, adding that the activities help show people’s heritage and amplify voices that have historically been marginalized.

About 375 students attend Hugh Hartman Elementary, Redmond School District’s dual-language immersion school, which has classes in Spanish and English.

In 2020, the school district transformed its kindergarten-only Redmond Early Learning Center into Hugh Hartman Elementary. The Spanish-language dual-immersion program moved over from Sage Elementary, and the early learning center was unified.

The school started as K-3 when it opened in September 2020 and will become a full K-5 school by fall 2022. The district’s dual-language program is expected to be fully implemented in kindergarten through 12th grade by the 2029-30 school year.

The school opened without a library, but over the past year school staff created a plan and found funding for the design and new books.

Alliende received a nearly $20,000 grant in American Rescue Plan Act funds from the State Library of Oregon to fund the monthly family engagement nights for a year and also to purchase new books. The engagement night themes are also integrated into the curriculum every month.

So far, about 3,000 new books have been added to the library with the goal of reaching 10,000. Some are bilingual and others are exclusively in English or Spanish. All the books are mixed together and coded by color.

Lisa Burgher, the school’s principal, said when the school opened in 2020, the school district did not have a district librarian, so she worked with several community partners to create the plan for the library. She said partners like Deschutes Public Library, Bend-La Pine Schools and Rotary were instrumental in helping create a plan and developing a vision for what the bilingual library should look like.

“It was like a true example of a community partnership,” Burgher said. “The transition to a new school without a library has been hard for some of the families. But I think because it’s a dual-language school and a bilingual 50/50 library and it’s a new collection, I think once parents are in it and see the quality of the books, I think people will be happy.

“We want the library to be the heart of the school.”

While some aspects have yet to be completed, the design has taken shape.

Above the library bookshelves are framed self-portraits of students in the first class at Hugh Hartman Elementary.

“It’s a historic year because we opened the Hugh Hartman Elementary the year of COVID,” she said. “And there’ll be a plaque in honor of our first year.”