Faculty and students at George Manierre Elementary, a kindergarten through eighth-grade public school on the Near North Side, recently cut the ribbon at their newly renovated library.

The overhaul — which included interior improvements such as new furniture, carpeting and bookshelves, as well as the addition of 2,000 new books — was funded by the Minneapolis-based Target Corp., in conjunction with the Heart of America Foundation, as part of the store’s School Library Makeover grant program. The new room was unveiled during a community event at the school on Sept. 21.

Manierre Principal Shirley Roach said that in her decade of service at the school, she had never really considered the library as much of a fixer-upper.

“But after we had the ‘extreme makeover,’ I felt that it had looked pretty bad,” she joked.

The library hadn’t been updated since it was first built as an addition to the school in 1962.

As part of the renovation, which cost around $200,000, Target knocked down walls to expand the room and converted a nearby classroom into a computer lab, complete with new PCs, televisions and iPads.

And that was just the beginning. Before the grand opening, the company brought in volunteers to paint murals inside and outside the school, and representatives from Heart of America visited classrooms to hand out new books to children for their own libraries at home.

“They did everything,” said Roach, “It was like I had known them forever.”

Roach hoped to carry on the family feeling at Manierre, where 97.5 percent of the student body comes from low-income households.

The school, located at 1420 N. Hudson Ave., sits across the street from the Marshall Field Garden Apartments, one of the oldest subsidized housing complexes in Chicago. Built in 1929, the 628-unit development houses nearly 1,800 Section 8 tenants, including most of the school’s student population.

“They are right in our door — it’s the same family, same community,” said Roach.

Other students — though fewer these days — come to the school from the Cabrini-Green public housing community located a few blocks southwest of the site. Enrollment at Manierre has dipped from 810 students in 2006 to 513 last year.

As part of the renovation, Roach arranged for one area of the library to be converted into a “parent corner,” where family members can now come before school to enjoy a book and a cup of coffee.

“We feel that if you can get parents to read and to help children to create libraries at home, it will really complete the community here,” she said.

Target’s renovation comes at a time when the school could use an educational edge.

Though scores in state testing have improved slowly among Manierre’s students during the past few years, the school’s performance remains consistently below district-wide averages. Manierre has met adequate yearly progress goals for both math and reading scores only once since 2006, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education.

“We’re going up, but we have not been able to reach that peak yet,” said Roach.

Given those scores, Roach said that her hopes weren’t high when the school applied for the Target award earlier this year.

“We had tried grants before, and we had always fallen short on it,” she said. “Sometimes we aren’t always able to generate grants, because they are looking for schools that are already achieving.”

The school was one of 42 schools nationwide that received library makeovers from Target this year. By the end of the year, the company expects to have completed 118 library renovations.

“It is part of our commitment that we want children to read proficiently by the end of the third grade, and that goes to part of our selection process,” said Casey Decker, a Chicago store team leader for Target.

The new library precedes Target’s own introduction into the neighborhood, as the company has recently laid plans to set up shop at the corner of Larrabee Avenue and Division Street, a few blocks south of the school, at the site of a former public housing high-rise. In July, the city approved plans for a 150,000-square-foot store to be developed at the 3.5-acre property.

News of the Target project triggered some backlash from public housing residents, who charged that the Chicago Housing Authority should reserve the land for residential redevelopment. Others, such as Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), hailed the proposal as a job creator and a potential boost to property values in the neighborhood.

Last year, Target awarded a similar library grant to Brennemann Elementary School at 4251 N. Clarendon Ave., located a few blocks away from a then-recently opened location at the storied Wilson Yard development.

Roach said that she only recently learned that the Target project when Ald. Burnett gave a speech at the opening of the library. She said that she hadn’t heard any ill words about the new store from residents, but imagined that it might be a point of contention for some.

“Maybe part of the community may be sensitive to Target being there; I’m unaware of it,” she said.

What she was aware of, however, was the change that the Target’s gift had made at Manierre.

“The children feel so much better from walking into that new library,” she said. “It’s just like having a new room in your home.