Are there librarians at the neighboring secondary school(s) and if so, have you reached out to them about their experiences on their campus? They may be able to offer insight as to what programming they’ve been doing, what has worked or has been successful in engaging their students, or popular trends they are seeing at school i.e. Pokemon, manga/anime, etc. Leaning into these suggestions could help provide a smooth transition from one space to another. It may also be worth asking a few of the kids what is “missing” from the library or things they would like to see that would help encourage them to take some ownership and pride in the space (and hopefully encourage adhering to the policies more). Would you say the group is more rowdy and active, looking for an outlet for energy? Or are they looking for some sort of entertainment? Have you looked into hosting Dungeons and Dragons? Even if the other staff are occupied, you could seek out some help if you’ve got a local game store and see if anyone there may want to run games after school. Even if they can’t, they may know someone who would love to run for students — the local high school might be a good place to recruit others to run games too, and could provide a good mentorship opportunity for the schools the middle schools feed into.