Allentown, PA, Schools Forced to Convert Libraries to Classrooms
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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 10/16/2007
Amy Strunk, the librarian at Washington Elementary School in Allentown, PA, was recently forced to give up her media center to make way for a second-grade class.
Pam Kopishke, the librarian at nearby Ritter Elementary, also had her library turned into a first-grade classroom. But, luckily, McKinley Elementary managed to save its library by moving it into the gym.
So now, like a dim sum waitress, Strunk pushes a cart of books from class to class, stopping to teach her “literature-based” lesson and helping kids check out books with her portable scanner. But unlike the speech therapist who has an office in the hallway, Strunk still has a desk and a counter in the media center, says Washington’s principal, Donna Scholtis.
What’s happening to the libraries in this poor urban district? With a total of 22 schools, enrollment has exploded over the past few years—from 16,467 in 2001 to 18,504 last year—thanks to an influx of families from New York, Philadelphia, and other urban areas as well as New Jersey. The newcomers are looking for a more affordable place to live. And now there’s simply not enough room, says Susan Williams, a spokeswoman for the district.
Last year, four first-grade classes at Washington had a whopping 34 students in each room, but now there are a more manageable 25 kids in the former library. The school, which was built to accommodate 450 kids, currently has about 550.
Scholtis says she agonized over her decision this summer to push all the shelves to the perimeter of the library to create a classroom. “I hated the idea of losing the library space for kids, but I really had little choice,” she says. “It was the only place where a class could be accommodated.” Ten years ago, Scholtis took the art room and turned it into a classroom.
The good news is that there are no districtwide plans to get rid of librarians. “It won’t happen,” reassures Scholtis. Although nearly all students receive free or reduced lunch, the school has achieved the annual yearly progress requirement under No Child Left Behind for three years in a row.
Also in the works for the Allentown School District is a $252 million facilities plan that would renovate and add space to some buildings. But that won’t affect Scholtis’s school, which is landlocked and has no room for an addition or a portable classroom
