[CALIBK12] Fwd: re: Highly qualified teachers

[Emily Milla]

I would like to respond to this one. You take your audience a bit for granted in this statement. I am sure you, and many members of this list are "highly qualified" librarians or Library Media Teachers. And when school districts, like yours, choose to use their budgets to hire LMTs to work in their libraries (or even in their district offices), then yes, more often than not they are "highly qualified." However, many school districts, including my high school district of more than 8000 students, choose to "save money" by employing only library paraprofessionals, just as Barbara Boxer's reply stated. This is at the heart of what the SKILLs Act is all about. 

Our district has 3 comprehensive high schools with only a library technician and a library clerk at each site. We are responsible for textbooks as well as the library. We also have 2 alternative high schools with no library services or personnel. I believe that most of our district's library paraprofessionals are "highly qualified" as library clerks and techs, and some of us are perhaps even overqualified for these positions, but none of us are even moderately qualified LMTs. I don't know that all of my coworkers would agree with me on this, but, having worked under a wonderful LMT in a different district in the past, I greatly feel the lack. We do the best that we can, but it affects us on many levels, including funding, and the way that our libraries are viewed and used by our students, teachers, and administrators. For example, my high school chooses to use the library as a testing center during STAR testing, CAHSEE testing, and AP testing, and we are closed to students for about 6-10 weeks each year. There are several other potential locations where the testing could be held, but the library is viewed as the most convenient because no "classrooms" are disrupted, as they would be in the multi-purpose room where drama rehearses occasionally (last year our drama teacher threatened to cancel all plays for the remainder of the year if testing was moved to "her" room), or in the wrestling room (which is also smelly), or in the music room. It is not definite, but I feel strongly that, if we had a LMT in our library, particularly if he or she is "highly qualified" and fluent in the language of education (not just of libraries), perhaps our school's culture would shift more towards viewing the library as a classroom and not just as a space with some books and tables and computers. The library paraprofessionals in our district know that our libraries are a very valuable part of our school, but I look forward to a time, with the help of the SKILLs Act, when it might also be valued beyond the small circle of library staff, some supportive teachers, and the students who have made use of our knowledge and resources and realized what the library has to offer them. 



Emily Milla
Library Clerk
Escondido High School
Escondido Union High School District
<emilla at euhsd.k12.ca.us>

>>> Heather McBride <merimac25 at yahoo.com> 08/31/07 9:54 AM >>>
Hi all,
   How do we become "highly qualified"??? I thought we
were!
Heather



Note: forwarded message attached.


Heather McBride 
Library Media Teacher 
La Cumbre Junior High School 
Santa Barbara School District


       
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