O’Connell, who presented the library with a copy of Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion, sympathized with the school’s plight and expressed his regrets that “the check is not in the mail,” according to the November 5 Escondido North County Times. He went on to explain that the 6-year-old State Library Act, which prioritized school-library funding in the state budget, has gone from allocating $5.32 per child in 2002 to $1.40 for FY 2004 due to California’s fiscal crisis—even as the cost of a quality library book has risen to as much as $18.
“The fact is, we have money coming into the cookie jar for school facilities, but not libraries,” O’Connell lamented, acknowledging that the problem exists in new schools statewide. He encouraged parents to continue filling the gap with book drives and fundraisers.
“I hope to open it up in a couple of weeks so [the students] have access to something, but I’m going to have to limit it to one book per child,” library technician Kathy Tom said in the November 2 Times. She explained that many of the 800 books currently in the collection for the use of the 350-student population are donated paperbacks that “aren’t going to last long, especially in the hands of middle schoolers.” The American Library Association’s American Association of School Librarians division recommends that media centers stock 20 books per student.
Posted November 5, 2004.