Prevent, don't cure

OGDEN, Utah – Twenty librarians in the Ogden School District could be out of a job.

The twenty Library Media Specialists were called to a mandatory meeting on Friday morning where they were told that their contracts won’t be renewed and their positions will no longer exist starting July 1.

According to the superintendent, Ogden School District entered the 2012-2013 school year with a $2.7 million deficit. He said they’ve avoided cutbacks in past years, but they finally have to do it this year.

“We’ve just come through the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. Our school district over the past 5 years, we’ve not reduced staff, we’ve not reduced personnel, we’ve not cut programs, we’ve not increased class sizes, we’ve not furloughed students or teachers and we’ve also not increased taxes,” said Brad Smith, superintendent.

But members of Utah’s chapter of the American Federation of Teachers say the cost-saving measure is only hurting children.

The school board still has to approve the cuts in June. If approved, the district plans to replace the positions with part-time staff working 3.5-hour shifts and have two licensed media specialists working at the district level. - Fox13 News, April 26, 2013.

This weekend I received a call from a very concerned former state library consultant who wanted some advice on how to reverse the decision the Ogden, Utah school district administration made to cut its professional librarians.

I didn't have much to offer or felt I could be very encouraging. Once a recommendation has been made to the board on any budget issue, it's nearly impossible to reverse such decision.

Back in 2004 when Minnesota was experiencing one of its regular round of educational austerity programs, I got involved in a couple efforts to convince school boards to keep a professional library position slated for termination. I didn't have much success.  

Yes, there are things we can do, including communicating the impact of cuts on students and staff (not on us) and building a coalition of parents and teachers willing to speak on our behalf. (And such efforts are underway already in Ogden.)

Nor does it seem many efforts like this have been successful according to a study by NCES showing school library positions nationwide declined by 8 percent from 2007-08 to 2010-11.

So perhaps another (yes, I do drone on about this) reminder is due. The best cure for this problem of job loss is to prevent it in the first place ....

Prevention (from the Indispensable Librarian, 2nd edition)

Of course, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Ongoing efforts can make your library media program less likely to be the target of budget reductions. Make sure you are already doing the things below, many which have already been discussed in greater detail in other chapters of this book:

1. Build and maintain a library media program that teaches critical information and technology literacy skills, improves student literacy rates, and supports all classrooms and curricular areas.
2. Serve the needs of your teaching and administrative staff through instructional collaboration, technology training and support, and filling requests for professional materials.
3. Establish a school library media program advisory board comprised of a wide range of stakeholders, especially parents, that meets on a regular basis to discuss goals, policies, and budgets.
4. Create long-term goals and annual objectives that are supported by the principal and teachers and are tied directly to your building’s goals. Enacting long-range plans and multi-year strategies or projects makes it difficult to change horses in midstream.
5. Build a mutually supportive relationship with your principal.
6. Track and report to your administrator the use of your library media program, especially units of teaching, collaborations, and specific skills you, yourself, teach.
7. Communicate regularly and formally with administrators, teachers, students, parents and the community about what happens in your library program, through newsletters, websites, and e-mail. Communicate to individuals on "I thought you'd like to know about this..." topics. Present to your school board whenever you get the chance.
8. Have an ongoing involvement with your parent-teacher organizations.
9. Serve on leadership, curriculum, technology and staff development teams in your building and district.
10. Be active in your professional teacher organization and remind officers that as a dues-paying member, you deserve as much support as the classroom teacher.
11. Be involved in the extra-curricular life of the school, attending school plays, sporting events, award ceremonies etc. Be visible! (I think it helps to be an active member of the community belonging to a church or other religious organization, community service group, and/or volunteer groups. It’s harder to fire a friend and neighbor than a stranger.)
12. Be active in your state school library association by attending conferences and regional events, reading its publications, volunteering for positions in the organization, and attending its legislative functions.

You, as a school library media specialist, are too important to too many children to let budget reductions that affect your program just “happen.” Get active and heed the words of Dylan Thomas – “Do not go gentle into that good night.”

Expecting a "deus ex machina" salvation by outside powers to recind a proposed budget cut is wishful thinking. Until every school librarian owns the job of creating an invaluable program, jobs will be at risk. 

I hope the Ogden administration will come to understand how harmful cutting professional librarians will be to its students and staff. Good school library programs are more important than ever in the "information age" when no one can be successful without both good information literacy, reading, and technology skills. 

If not... Well, perhaps such a move will serve as (another) wake-up call to the rest of us.

Comments

[Kate W]

These are all good suggestions. I also would include the individual librarian being confident that he or she is just as important as classroom teachers, specialist teachers, and the like. Sadly, though, I think the power of rhetoric ("libraries are dead, info lit/reading/lit appreciation can be taught in the classroom, volunteers can do that, we can get services from the public library") often wins out even over excellent library programs that serve as the heart of a school. So individual librarians need to recognize when their skills will be appreciated somewhere else, and not beat themselves up when their job is eliminated and they are shifted into another position or fired. Tell the school board exactly what they're losing, and don't volunteer to do the work for free.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Kate,

I really appreciate your comments - yes we have to believe in ourselves and sometimes we just have to move to places where what we teach and what we value are honored. See my old column:

http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/getting-the-job-you-deserve.html

Doug

[Nathan Mielke]

Sometimes the cuts come and there's nothing you can really do about it. I find in larger districts its more a systems issue. In smaller districts you have more control - because you are the only one, or one of only a few. When my job was cut 4/5 years ago (I forget when it was) in a large district I truly believe I was the hub of technology for the building. My principal fought his butt off for me and lost. Leaders in other buildings weren't seeing the value-add. When you have 22 buildings, majority rules. And it wasn't that a majority of others weren't doing good work, it just wasn't seen as overall a part of the life blood of the school. If it's 2-4 people, it's easy for entrepreneurial educators to take off with a program. You need STRONG leadership to drive a force of 10 plus people who barely see each other face to face. We need to be willing to morph too...I think the combo of reading specialist/interventionist/library media will be the next trend after the instructional tech coach craze cycles out.

[Stacy U.]

I am a teacher of 10 years, now studying to obtain my Library-Media endorsement. All of the things listed from the Indispensable Librarian article fit right into the emphasis of my program. I am excited to be making the change to the role of teacher-librarian, but cannot help but worry that the cuts for this position will continue to occur. Hopefully not as drastically as in Ogden. If there is one thing that a new teacher-librarian can do in the first few months at a new school, what should it be?

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Nathan,

In times of tough budgets and high test-driven accountability, I don't envy the building admins. As a part of the admin team, I see them wrestle with really tough decisions every day.

I expect you are right about the combo role. Our people are there already, I think. Plus we do prep time and have a tech curriculum for which we are responsible - including reporting to parents.

No easy answers here. I just don't want the library ship to sink on MY watch.

Doug

Hi Stacy,

There will always be a place for great educators, maybe just with different job titles. Welcome to the profession.

I address your "first year" question in this column. Hope it helps.

http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/starting-off-on-the-right-foot.html

Doug