San Diego's School Library Conundrum
District plans to create 102 new libraries, but who's going to run them?
By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2003
Funded by a $1.51 billion bond measure passed in 1998, 77 elementary schools, 16 middle schools, and nine high schools can expect new Internet-wired media centers by 2005, with some expanding up to 3,000 square feet, says district spokeswoman Erica Wilgenburg. But the money is specifically allocated for the upgrade of 165 existing schools and the construction of 16 new schools—not for library positions, books, or other materials.
About 17 libraries have been completed since 2002 and 70 others are undergoing construction, but some may not be staffed by trained school librarians since California doesn't mandate certified media specialists in its public schools. The limitations of the bond measure have forced some schools to fund librarian positions out of their own budgets or through community support, says Wilgenburg.
Jeff Frost, a legislative advocate for the California School Library Association, says the school construction boom, which is taking place statewide, is ironic.
"We keep building schools and libraries in schools, but we don't have the money to fund them," he says.
Still, Wilgenburg says the libraries are the "shining beacon of the bond measure," and that for some schools, the library will mark the first new addition to the school building in 40 years."
