The board, which cut $500,000 from the FY 2005 budget in May, carried the slashed spending into FY 2006 with a unanimous vote September 20. Trustees maintained the reduction of library technicians systemwide from nine to four; of those remaining, one has resigned in frustration at the increased workload and another has taken an unexpected leave of absence. The two remaining are responsible for maintaining seven school libraries, three of which are all but shuttered due to inadequate staffing, the Index-Tribune reported September 20.
“When we heard we were going to be fourth [in the order restored] after athletics and extracurriculars, that really disturbed us,” Darleen Beals, library technician for the Adele Harrison and Altimira middle schools, told the Index-Tribune before the board meeting. She went on to ask rhetorically, “I can understand athletics being a great incentive, but priority over books and reading?”
The district’s only credentialed library media specialist, Nancy McEnery, serves at the high-school level but has had to suspend student borrowing when she is teaching since losing her only media-center technician. “I can’t do two roles at once,” she told the newspaper.
With even more cuts on the table for the next two fiscal years, school officials have formed a budget-advisory committee to examine revenue-generating options such as placing a parcel-tax question before voters. But disgruntlement throughout the district makes passage seem a long shot. “We entrusted you with money and the education of our children. We’re looking to you now to find the money—if you have to go to your own pockets to pull it out,” one retired school worker upbraided trustees September 20.
Posted September 23, 2005.