Parent Volunteers to Play Larger Role inDearborn Public SchoolLibraries
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By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 01/25/2010
Students in Dearborn, MI, may be seeing their parents in the school library more often than the librarian.
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Whitmore Bolles Elementary, where Marie Lemenu is a school librarian. |
The layoffs are coming mid-year as Dearborn tries to balance an unexpected $12 million in state cuts announced by Michigan this fall—several months after the public schools had set its budget last June.
“This is a terrible situation we’re in, and it’s a terrible fix caused by the state,” says Mustonen.
While $2.3 million of these cuts was recently returned to the school district, those funds are going to partially offset previous reductions in salary among the board of education, the superintendent’s office, and other non-instructional positions, as well as restore 26 teaching and staff positions—but not school librarians. Instead, larger schools will have a librarian on site one day a week, with smaller schools for just half a day.
But to add to the problem, say media specialists, is the replacement of school librarians with parent volunteers—a move Mustonen says came at the request of parents after layoffs were announced and were cleared with the school district’s attorneys.
Yet while school librarians often welcome volunteers to help them reshelve books or occasionally assist students, that’s different than replacing them completely. And school librarians say they’re worried how this will affect students, teachers, and the quality of education in the district.
“It’s no different than saying they’re going to replace a classroom teacher or art teacher with a volunteer,” says Marie Lemenu, a teacher-librarian at Whitmore Bolles Elementary and Snow Elementary in Dearborn, who’s still waiting to hear if she’s going to keep her own job. “We have master’s degrees. We are teachers.”
Cassandra Barnett, president of the American Association of School Librarians, is also concerned that volunteers don’t have the depth of training to properly run a school library on their own.
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Brian Whiston, superintendent of Dearborn Public Schools. |
However, training for parent volunteers on the Follett computer system has already been scheduled for January 29, says Mustonen, as staff layoffs, which also includes seven assistant principals, and 138 teachers, take effect February 2. Mustonen admits that volunteers will only be allowed to perform some limited tasks—and not create a hindrance in media centers.
“Our media specialists are highly educated teachers who provide our students with quality instruction,” admits Mustonen in a follow-up email. “Although school media centers will remain open, our students will experience a decrease in the level of service.”
