“ We don ’ t have fun in here , we go on an adventure ,” --Latanya Patilla , library tech at King Elementary School
until she found him books on basketball : “ It sparked his love for reading .”
Her favorite books to recommend are ones that let students know it ’ s OK to be different , and ones that help students face their fears .
“ I always tell the kids , ‘ Be yourself ,’” said Patilla , who has recently been recommending , “ The Mixed-Up Chameleon ,” by Eric Carle .
Patilla spends long days at King , where she is not only the library technician , but is coordinator for the afterschool program as well , often staying until 7 p . m . on school days , “ I love what I do . I don ’ t know what to do but work .”
Students , she said , are her extended family . When her father died of a heart attack in 2013 she was immobilized by sadness . But then a student wrote her a letter , telling her to get back to work .
“ I was at the school , bright and early the next day ,” she said .
Patilla grew up near King , attending Franklin Elementary School and then Bethune Elementary School when it first opened . She was part of the early years of the district ’ s desegregation efforts , riding a bus miles across town to attend Wawona Middle School instead of her neighborhood middle school , Irwin Junior High School ( closed in 1979 ). She was nervous at first , but ended up loving Wawona , “ I
made friends from all over the place .”
She said Wawona “ exposed me to different lifestyles , backgrounds and cultures -- a great eye opener .”
But her dream since she was a child was to go to Edison High School and be a cheerleader . She made the cheer squad , incorporating the “ Russian splits ” into her audition , a move no one else trying out or on the squad had ever seen : “ I didn ’ t know it was going to be show-stopper .”
She graduated in 1984 , but did not really leave Edison , working for the next four years as the cheer coach while taking classes at Fresno City College in finance and child development . She left Edison for a “ grown-up ” job , she said , helping customers with financing at Ventura TV .
But in 1996 she returned to Fresno Unified as a noon time assistant at King , where her son attended . In 1998 she became a paraeducator in the after-school program , moving on to library technician in 2003 and after school program coordinator in 2005 .
She still runs into friends who remember playing library with Patilla . They remind her that she used to “ teach ” them Spanish as well , although she did not know Spanish . She feels fortunate to be living her childhood wish to oversee a library ,“ This is my dream job .”
16 FACES : LATANYA PATILLA