[CALIBK12] Query: Split library positions

[bwoolls at slis.sjsu.edu]

This is a theory that may be (although we will never know) very close to
reality. One theory of mine came with looking at budget forms in more than
one state. These have a separate accounting number for librarians outside
the accounting number for instructional staff. This makes those positions
very vulnerable. That is, people look down the budget lines and see that
salaries for librarians total $999,000 and figure out an easy way to slash
almost a million dollars without touching that other accounting number for
teaching staff.

Judie makes the case that librarians serve all the students and all the
teachers. If you factor in they work with all the curriculum, all the
time, there is the fortress we build around that budget item and those
staff positions.

The next thing to look at are the job descriptions so that the assignment
is to do more than manage the facility and collection. While that is fine,
necessary, and an assignment that has a dollar factor attached because of
the size of the inventory you are maintaining, it also has that assignment
to work with teachers and curriculum.

One respondent to this thread talked about before and after, going from
two schools to one school. It's not fair to her to repeat her name or
message here, but if you are in a school district with "sharing" as an
option you need to

1) invite her to speak to your teachers, administrators, and school board
as quickly as possible.
2) make sure the school district pays her travel there and a consulting
fee, and a substitute for her library while she is gone.

You tell them this is the same as preventative measures for infectious
disease control. They need to hear this message and they need to pay for
the privilege of listening because if they don't have to pay for it, they
won't listen.

She has THE message your teachers and administrators, school boards, and
parents need to hear.

Blanche

> This may make me a conspiracy theorist, but I believe that district
> administrators and board members are telling each other or are being told
> at
> job-alikes and conferences, by consultants and (I hope not) unions, that
> the
> way to keep budget cuts away from the classroom and students is to cut
> libraries, counselors, custodians, etc.
>
> I say this because the reports of library cuts are so consistent. Is this
> an
> example of the 100th monkey theory or are people getting their cues from
> the
> same place? Last year, our teacher's contract negotiating committee
> decided
> to sacrifice reinstatement of high school LMT's to 100% (from 80%) in
> order
> to get a higher salary raise for all certificated. That's when I became a
> union rep and challenged any talk of "we need to negotiate for what
> benefits
> the most members rather than a small interest group." I made it clear that
> their job is to represent me as a union member, and not throw a small
> group
> of members to the wolves. Now the union president states to the reps, the
> membership, and the school board, that cuts in the library affects every
> student and the classroom learning experience.
>
> If my theory is true, is there anything CSLA can do to counter this?
>
>
> Judie Ehret Straesser
> Library Media Teacher
> Elsie Allen High School
> 599 Bellevue Avenue
> Santa Rosa, CA 95407
> 707-528-5749
>