Quitting Time

"I just feel like I can't battle this anymore. I cannot watch these children not have decent libraries," says Gniewek, who's worked in Philadelphia for 15 years, four-and-a-half running libraries.

Like many districts nationwide, Philadelphia has in the last several years allowed individual schools greater say over how they spend their money. The result has been bad for libraries, with many principals, strapped for funds, deciding that a clerk can run the library or that the school can afford little money for new books (News, January 2000, p. 16). What really bothered Gniewek, is that Philadelphia has channeled money into early literacy programs and technology, but administrators have not seen libraries as integral to those efforts.

Librarians who worked under Gniewek are "shocked and very disappointed" that she has left, says Crystal H. Patterson, the district's pedagogical librarian who is now also filling Gniewek's job. "Debra has been an unbelievable advocate for school libraries," Patterson says.

Gniewek left Philadelphia to work as library coordinator in Council Rock, PA, an affluent suburb of Philadelphia. She says the final straw came when a district "empowerment team," created in response to the state designating Philadelphia as a low-performing district, came up with an improvement plan that didn't once mention libraries. Since the plan was the blueprint to apply for more state funds, Gniewek says, it seemed pretty clear that once again there would be no money earmarked for libraries.

Still, Gniewek says there's one good thing about no longer working in the district. As an administrator, she was not permitted to speak at board meetings. Now, as a Philadelphia resident, she can. And guess what? "They have not heard the last from me," she says.--A. G.