Another CA School District Set to Eliminate School Libraries

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By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 04/07/2010

School libraries are set to disappear in California’s Belmont-Redwood Shores School District as it plans to close all media centers, raise class sizes, demand six furlough days from staff, and remove the fourth and fifth grade music programs to stem its deficit for the 2010–2011 academic year.

The cuts are set to save $2.5 million for next year—but as a result students will reportedly no longer be allowed to check out school library books.

Nesbit Elementary in the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District.

While the grim news in this Northern Californian town is similar to that being told across the state, as 23,000 pink slips have been handed out to educators in the state this year, with school librarians in particular being hit very hard, says the California Teachers Association (CTA)

“We have the worst ratio of students to librarians,” says Mike Myslinski, a spokesperson for the CTA. “They think they’re expendable. These cuts will just make it worse.”

Calls placed to Belmont-Redwood Shores Superintendent Emerita Orta-Camilleri were not returned, nor was an email to School Board President Cathy Wright.

But Myslinski says that with $17 billion cut from California’s education system in the past two years, it’s no surprise that there’s very little left to trim that doesn’t seem basic. And while CTA is disappointed with the number of pink slips its members have received since March 15—the deadline to warn teachers that their job may be cut for the next school year—the union has watched as school districts across California have been stripped to the bone.

“The sense is these state cuts are placing our public schools at the breaking point,” he says.

And many are at the point of near insolvency, according to the California Department of Education, which recently released a report listing 12 school districts, including Lynwood Unified in Los Angeles County and Natomas Unified in Sacramento, which may not be able to meet their financial obligations for the upcoming school year.

While Belmont-Redwood Shores isn’t on the list, many believe the choices it’s making to stay solvent, like other school districts, is barely a better solution.

“It is a disaster,” says Myslinski.