Layoffs, Interrogations: L.A. School Librarians Under Fire
RSSBy Lauren Barack
Just be grateful you're not a school librarian in L.A. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is poised to layoff 85 middle and high school librarians at the end of this academic year, a move that's set to leave most of the district's 700 K-12 schools without media specialists. To make "Right now, we're being cross-examined," says Laura Graff, a media specialist at Sun Valley High School who was one of many librarians questioned last week. "One was on the stand for an hour and half, and they're trying to prove we're not qualified." Approximately 30 middle and high schools have already told LAUSD that they're willing to pay for their own school librarian in the 2011-2012 school year, and about 200 elementary schools plan to reinstate library aides for three to six hours a day, says Esther Sinofsky, director of Instructional Media Services for LAUSD, who was one of many librarians to receive a pink slip in March. In schools without aides or librarians, teachers will be given permission to take their classes to the library to work on classroom assignments and to check out books. The state doesn't mandate media specialists at any level. "Every school is going to be affected," says Sinofsky. The layoffs are a part of district cuts for the 2011-2012 school year as LAUSD tries to stem a $408 million deficit. However, California Governor Jerry Brown on Monday announced that state revenue unexpectedly jumped by $6.6 billion—and that he would restore about $3 billion to education spending. LAUSD didn't return calls by press time asking how that would affect current layoff plans, and for now it's asking teachers and librarians to take 12 furlough days in the coming school year. "[The union] has not yet agreed to 12," says Lydia Ramos, a spokesperson for the LAUSD. "If they did, we would restore school site positions first before anything else. So the goal is to provide libraries. But we are in a crisis." United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the teachers' union, isn't sure its members will approve 12 furlough days—and won't even broach the subject until LAUSD gives them evidence that the district has done some belt-tightening of its own. "We're not going to put ourselves in a position where there was fat that could be cut," says A.J. Duffy, UTLA's president. "I'm very mindful of how nervous the teachers are, but I have to do this properly. Just putting that on the table is one half of the job, and the other is selling it to the membership—and if I can't sell it to the membership then all is lost." While layoffs are almost standard in many California school districts, LAUSD has been able to save many library positions in the past. This year, however, many feel a shift in the way LAUSD views school librarians. "I think there's a lack of understanding as to what a librarian is, that kids can just go on Google or Wikipedia and get information," says Sinofsky, who has enough seniority to potentially return to a library if a school pays for the position next year. "Yes, kids are computer savvy. But no one will be there to teach students how to be information literate. Somehow I'm not hearing that as a point of discussion." This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe. Don’t send LAUSD Librarians to the Inquisition, send the downtown bureaucrats
http://www.examiner.com/public-education-in-los-angeles/don-t-send-lausd-librarians-to-the-inquisition-send-the-downtown-bureaucrats Bond Measures K and R were approved by the voters to fund new
school libraries across the district. Those libriaries with their
thousands of dollars of print and digital media will stand idle, or have
their collections plundered, without a teacher librarian. One new
school, Roy Romer Middle School in North Hollywood, is one example
of where that has already happened. It has been without a teacher
librarian for the 2010-2011 school year. Unfortunately, I am an LAUSD TL. Last year, I was at a middle school library that was closed. So sad for the kids that live in the inner city of LA where there is no bookstores and limited public library hours. I fought the good fight but had to move on. Things were looking up when I landed at Monroe HS last August. But that picture quickly changed on Feb 15 when the school board voted to lay off 87 TL's. I tried to convince the school to fund the position but money was tight. The students are in disbelief. Last week I went to Sacramento to lobby at the Capital Building during the State of Emergency Event. So this is my life now. Politics of working for a dysfunctional district. LAUSD mismanaged to the very end. Please let all released Media Specialists in L.A. know that I am thinking about them; this sounds awful. I am a library media specialist in Charlotte, North Carolina and was given a pink slip on Friday along with 79 others in my field. I was placed into a middle school to teach theatre arts which is on my class A license and I have not taught in 10 years. The system seems satisfied that I have a job and they think I should be happy but I don't like leaving these inner-city children without a Media Specialist to keep them competitive with students who have access to information at home. I feel your pain. * = Required information
matters worse, attorneys for the school district have been interrogating librarians about their qualifications in a downtown basement—very much like a courtroom setting. The reason? To axe the media specialists, lawyers must prove that they don't have the recent teaching experience required to move them into a classroom. A district rule mandates that teachers must have taught students within the last five years.
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