Dozens of NYC Schools Are Without Libraries
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By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 12/17/2008
Why are 17,000 kids in at least 42 high-need Bronx schools without libraries despite the fact that New York requires one in every public high school in the state? The main reasons are lack of money and overcrowding.
“We don’t have room for one,” Laureta Jones, PTA president of Public School 16, told the New York Daily News. “We have so many kids, we have to use the space for classrooms.”
While some of these schools, located in many of the poorest neighborhoods of the Bronx, are in the midst of renovating their libraries or awaiting new ones, most of them are having the same problem as the Bronx Center for Science and Math, which also houses the Eximius College Preparatory Academy. Students in both schools currently have no access to a school library.
Eximius is sponsored by the College Board, which, according to its Web site, is structured to educate, support, and guide students from middle school to high school graduation. Eximius students—who are required to complete two advanced placement courses before graduation—are prepped to meet the “high standards required for college admission, as well as meeting or exceeding New York City and State learning standards and proficiency requirements.”
But how do they achieve all that without a school library? College Board spokeswoman Sheila Jamison says, “We'd love all schools to have a library, but shared space and resources don’t always permit this.” Jamison explains that in place of libraries, “new technologies do provide access to research and a vast array of reference and learning materials.”
Eximius Principal Tammy Smith refused to comment on the situation.
Bronx’s Monroe High School also has no library services because of a delayed renovation effort. The library at the Mohegan School, in the Bronx's West Farms neighborhood, is closed because there’s no librarian. And the only certified librarian on the Evander Childs campus, which serves more than 2,700 students, works as a substitute English teacher because a new library is being designed for the school.
Evander, however, is one of three libraries in the Bronx being funded by New Visions for Public Schools, an education reform organization dedicated to improving education in New York City public schools.
Still, many high school students will go without libraries because some of these projects may take years to complete.
SLJ contacted the New York State Department of Education for its reaction to the Bronx schools being in violation of state regulations. Neither they nor New York City Department of Education could determine if library waivers were given to any of these schools.
William Havemann, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Education, said in a statement that the DOE is committed to ensuring that all students have access to an outstanding school library. “We will continue to work with schools to make sure they are able to provide all students with appropriate library access,” he says.
On the bright side Bronx’s Columbus High School, one of those sponsored by New Visions, is scheduled to unveil its new library at the end of January 2009.
New Visions plans to make these new media centers the heart of their schools by strengthening instruction, providing technology rich information access, developing innovative curricula, and building a schoolwide culture of literacy.
