If school libraries have ever been an important part of your life...
If you can imagine what you would have missed if your librarian had only a part-time staff assistant and wasn't available to help you when you needed to find a great book...
If you've ever had a research paper due next week and didn't have a clue where to look for information...
If you'd like to be part of the process of deciding what cuts will be made to our libraries because of our current budget shortfall...
Please share your thoughts. Be sure to check the bottom of this page for other people to whom you can send your thoughts. And, "Thank you," says my fantastic staff assistant!
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My name is Veronica Burch, I am a Junior at Mountain View High School and I know that libraries need a whole binding of people to complete the story. I know for sure that at schools especially schools with a lot of students there needs to be more than one person to help the student find what they are looking for. If you have ever needed something but weren't quite sure of what you were looking for or needed help on a paper or with some kind of research the librarians are there to help you.
ReplyDeleteI think that there needs to be a complete staff for the libraries. Librarians not only help students with school work, projects, or with finding books they are also there to be a friend and get to know the students and give a kind of relationship to them that they can not get any where else. Librarians are very important to not only the school but to the students too.
At the high school level don't we have a valid argument in keeping our media assistant hours in tact because of the RAP and senior presentations? We have students in here every period every day working on those. Supt. Deeder has said over and over again that he doesn't want the students to suffer academically because of the budget cuts, but as you all know reducing media assist. hrs. will greatly affect the high school students access and time spent helping them with these important projects. Our students are becoming aware of the cuts and are voicing their concerns over this. Something to think about!
ReplyDeleteI am writing to express my concern about the media staff assistant’s jobs possibly being cut in the Evergreen School District.
ReplyDeleteI do not currently have children attending any school in the district, but when I do, I would want them to receive the same level of learning as I did in the media programs. As a novelist, I have a high esteem for the importance of all aspects of the literary world, which includes our school libraries. Since the school years are a vital part of developing and exploring imagination and creativity, I feel that the media programs assist in that development immensely. As a former student of Image Elementary, Pacific Middle School and Evergreen High School I always enjoyed the libraries in school and learned much from the librarians. I am aware that if the media staff assistant’s jobs are cut, the librarians would not have time to give adequate attention to the students, which would include providing them with important instruction time that assists in their learning.
I know that our economy is suffering and many sacrifices are being made, but I think you will find that there are many employees in the district who would be willing to make their own sacrifices in order to keep the level of learning in the library that is expected from the schools in our community.
Malia Cortez
A Member of the Evergreen School District Community
I agree with needing help in the trenches of the education system. This is where the value exists. Cuts here are not the right cuts. The cuts need to come from the top heavy system and leave the real helpers to have the assistance they need.
ReplyDeleteI am a parent of a student in the Evergreen School District. Is it possible for the district to call on any of the many community groups in our area for volunteer help? I am sure there are several folks out there who are former librarian or equivalently educated, perhaps some one from the retired community with extensive background in this area, or working with students, or just have knowledge to offer and desire to educate. You could set up a process to decide if they are a fit for the library and students, do a little background, etc. and maybe get some real quality assistance without worry of pay. This would be a temporary patch obviously for now, its an alternative, to a situation we cannot control but must endure. There are plenty of folks in our community who would be very eager to help, put out the call, if you can.
ReplyDeleteCutting librarians and other staff that assists and facilitates student learning is not an option. Instead of cutting things that are helpful to the students, try cutting things that are not, like the WASL for example. How much money every year is wasted on that test? Money that could be put to better use to educate our children. Stop the insanity. Put money where it should go. Help our children learn what they need to, not how to take a test. What is more important? Step and and make the correct choice.
ReplyDeleteIt would be sad to see cuts in library staff. I know budgets are tight, but what are some other options for cutting expenses?
ReplyDeleteI'm a student at Mountain View H.S. and I absolutely love my school library. I don't think that I could live with out my library. I read thirty to sixty books a week an am constantly using the library resources. The Librarian Mrs. Mackey has helped me choose most of the books because of her expertise, my book interest, and of the books that that others read and favor. Ms Krystal is the sweetest thing and loves her job. I can't imagine how life would be with out the library staff at the school. I would think that all 3 of the librarian staff are important and are very helpful with the students that use the library, they help us with things like senior project or the best works we have done or our RAP's. I think that the school is too administratively heavy. I think we should concentrate on knowledge instead of power.
ReplyDeleteCutting the hours for library staff as a cost savings only sends the message that academics is not a priority. Too much is spent in programs that are for the under-achieving student or are not part of basic math, science, history, literature subjects. In my opinion, cuts should be made in classes like floral design, pottery etc. We all know that the arts are nice and make for a well-rounded student BUT those classes do not help kids pass the WASL or lay a foundation for their success in college.
ReplyDeletePlease do not cut the staff asst post in the libraries. As a parent and community member I've seen how critical this function is to making books and the access to information easy and fun for our young people. Our school libraries are also open to parents. The loss of staff here would negatively affect access to information which is a necessary building block to be world competitive in this global economy.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with the writer of the article about volunteers being used. I currently have students in the school district, and have even went so far as to ask the Office Staff at Mt View High School for volunteer opportunities, only to be told not unless an individual organization such as cheer needs you. A volunteer system would be easy to put in place at each of the schools in question. The budget simply put has to be cut somewhere, how does anyone think that this forum will gain enough support to do any good when the Levy could not even get enough of you to care. I personally stood on street corners for over 16 hours all together in support we lost, now WE have to deal with the fact there is no money to do what needs to be done. A library assistant okay make that cut, our students always have the public library when unable to receive or find what they need at the High School level Library. We have a public library on Hearthwood not to mention the one at the mall, when was the last time you ventured to the mall, next time stop by the library and do the research you need.
ReplyDeletePerhaps eliminating the airplane trips to seminars and doing them online in the media center. I bet the staff assistant could help with the set-up.
ReplyDeleteamen to eliminating waste around the wasl!
ReplyDeleteinstead of blind or mindless cuts, we need to be smart about what we are doing. everything the schools/administrations do can be done MUCH more efficiently. let's start by reducing wasteful copies, redundant hardcopy newsletters, wasted student lunches, etc.
also, instead of 'random' cuts, maybe it would make more sense to reduce everyone's pay by a relative percentage rather than eliminate positions that add value to the educational process..
times like these can bring out the worst or best in people, and we need ideas that call for solidarity and can-do approaches to the problems, instead of desperate knee-jerk reactions.
I am a parent of 2 high school students at Mt.View, they both spend a lot of time in the Library, and need a lot of help while in there, if there is no assistant to help what will they do, one person cannot help all these children. We all say that education is the key to success, without it they are sure to fail. yet with all the school budget cuts, that is NOT the message that you are sending to them. Who ever makes the final decision, please, reconsider, if you do decide to cut the positions, I hope you feel really good about your self, because what you are saing to these kids is,"You are not worth the time or the money for us to help you succeed".
ReplyDeleteI don't think the media assistant's hours should be cut at all. I think it would be a huge loss for our libraries if this happens. The media specialist would have to perform the clerical duties of the assistant and the students would be the ones that suffer. The assistants need to be in the library full-time so that the specialists can teach the students. I believe the cuts should come from eliminating travel by teachers and administrators.
ReplyDeleteThe librarians I dealt with was during the time I was in elementary school through high school. I now work in a library because of them. They took great lengths to teach me how to do research and help others find materials they needed. It was also when I learned how to run a.v. equipment for the school I attended and expanded knowledge about the world. I am not a reader, never have been, but the school library helped educate me in research, scholarly knowledge that I needed for college, and a cultural awareness that existed beyond my small environment. These are ever more critical in this global world economy of today. Students deal with various cultures and diverse environments than I did 30 years ago. If I had not had the exposure from the librarians in my life, I would not have been able to reach beyond my own centered identity. I know that those coming out of high school today don't understand how research works because they think everything is on the Web, that librarians are not able to increase the knowledge of our school aged students because they are the first to be shared by many school, and cut when budgets get tight. I never learned anything from the vice principal or principal of our school, but I did from the librarian of each school I attended. I learned life was beyond high school; that there were examples in the books on the shelves and the magazines in the collection of options I could never conceive; and that I could be anything I wanted in life by reading and doing research on those that came before me in history.
ReplyDeleteIf educating and making our children a success is the main mission of the Evergreen School District (or any district for that matter) then we need to give second thought to cutbacks in the staff assistant positions in the school libraries. Assistant is a fairly mild word when it comes to describing the job they do. Without the assistants it will up to the Librarian to ensure that ALL functions of the library are met in a timely fashion, both logistically and administratively. In order to accomplish that, less time will be available for student/library interaction in order to meet our students individual needs. Teaching them how to find information among the many choices of periodicals, print or electronic; how to collate it into a useable fashion; help with computer issues, or copying issues. Not all students in the district are lucky enough to have access to the Internet at home, or have parents at home when they need help in researching a project. That's where the staff assistant comes in. These are support positions, support for both the Librarian AND for the student. The Football coach AND team cannot win without the Assistant coaches...why should we ask the Librarians to play without theirs and in the end, make the students the "losers". Let's rethink this issue. Portland Schools have (The Oregonian 22MAR'09) and they're trying to reverse a bad decision...let history not repeat itself. Thank you
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