Wealthy School Libraries Feel the Pain
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By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 03/09/2009
School libraries nationwide are feeling the economic crunch—even those districts in affluent neighborhoods with stellar library programs.
Suburban school districts on the outskirts of New York City, for example, have long been immune to budget hardships, but they’re now facing staggering cuts that are bound to ravage long-established library programs.
In Westport, CT, a wealthy community with high test schools and a high school that was named “best” in the state expects first-time cuts that’ll no doubt impact the district’s library media program. Elementary library media assistants will be cut to half time next year, and parents have volunteered to fill their roles.
Although there are many “very competent parent volunteers in some schools, the numbers are decreasing, and attendance is inconsistent,” says Billy Terry, coordinator of information and technology literacy for Westport Public Schools.
Another casualty? The district’s annual four-day summer institute, which provides professional development to media specialists, technology teachers, and 60 other teachers and administrators.
Elsewhere in Connecticut, Simsbury High School, recipient of the 2008 American Association of School Librarians’ School Library Media Program of the Year award, won’t be replacing a retiring media specialist. It’s also planning to cut its department director for library services—and West Harford Public School plans similar cuts.
In Bedford, NY, north of Manhattan, where neighbors often run into Martha Stewart in a village shop, the fate of the Bedford Central School District’s library program is in dire straits, and media specialists are lobbying hard to convince the board of education not to go ahead with plans to cut up to three out of five elementary librarians.
In the worst case scenario, district elementary schools would be served by a librarian one or two days a week, leaving all administrative duties for five elementary schools to the remaining librarians to handle.
In Missouri, Lee’s Summit, a suburb of Kansas City, has revealed that none of its retiring media specialists will be replaced. The Lee’s Summit R-7 School District has always had a certified media specialist and clerk in every school, but next year the award-winning district will only be left with eight out of 18 schools with full-time media specialists.
In Mankato, MN, Doug Johnson, Director of Media and Technology for the Mankato Public Schools, reports that his district will loose 1.5 out of the four media specialist positions in its secondary schools and one of eight positions in elementary schools.
At Los Angeles’ Las Virgines Unified School District there’s currently a fulltime teacher librarian at each high school, middle school, and elementary school, as well as halftime and fulltime clerks. But that’s all about to change. According to Jane Lofton, a media specialist at Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills, CA, the administration and board are now considering cutting all teacher librarians, as well as two tech teachers, and replacing them with three newly-created positions that would merge tech specialists and librarians. “The new roles would emphasize “delivering technology to teachers rather than direct work with students in libraries,” Lofton says. “That would mean that just three people would end up trying to do what eight hard working people are now. We are doing everything we can to advocate to restore our positions, but it will be a major uphill battle.”
Meanwhile, in Florida, the Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville is proposing to slash in half the hours of of a school librarian at an elementary school with 1,375 students and a library with a 22,000-title collection.
There is a silver lining, however. Some of the cuts may be restored by the recent economic relief package signed by President Obama—but until the funds reach local governments, many school library programs are still in jeopardy.
