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Jefferson, Kennedy highs cut school librarians
Molly Duffy
Apr. 21, 2016 6:28 pm, Updated: Apr. 21, 2016 11:05 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS - Becky Johnson thought about not going into work that day, the first after she learned her job as a librarian was being cut to balance the Cedar Rapids school district's budget.
Instead, she helped a frustrated student understand instructions on an assignment. She recommended a book to another. One student came in crying, needing advice. Students are always funneling in and out of Johnson's days in Jefferson High School's library.
'There not being that person for them next year breaks my heart,” she said Thursday.
Jefferson and Kennedy high schools, which together serve more than 3,000 students, won't have librarians next school year. To make ends meet, each of the district's three comprehensive high schools had to cut four full-time staff positions as part of the district's $2.3 million budget reduction - a result of falling enrollment and lackluster state funding.
Along with some non-classroom cuts, the district also is getting rid of its elementary Spanish program.
The reductions come at a time the state is emphasizing literacy and reading proficiency in K-12 education. According to 2015 state report cards, 10 percent of Kennedy's 1,749 students and 25 percent of Jefferson's 1,516 students do not meet reading proficiency standards.
'We have data that shows when you take away a librarian, the reading scores at that school will fall,” said Wendy Ziegler, Kennedy's librarian of 17 years. 'I think these decisions were made too quickly, without thinking through the long-term repercussions of a cut like this.”
Ziegler is retiring. Johnson, a librarian for 16 years, will be put on the surplus list to be considered for an appropriate future opening.
Johnson was recognized as Iowa's top school librarian in 2010. Without her and Ziegler, the two libraries will likely be staffed by existing media secretaries, Superintendent Brad Buck said.
Media secretaries are not required to have professional training and many have only a high school degree, said Kathy Goedeken, a librarian for Coolidge and Cleveland elementary schools.
Secretaries check materials in and out and run overdue notices, while librarians - officially called 'media specialists” - are responsible for ordering and cataloging materials, teaching media literacy and collaborating with teachers in their schools, Goedeken said.
Chris Rowles, a history teacher of 14 years at Jefferson, said he and Johnson work together to teach his students research methods and about being 'critical consumers of information.”
'Having someone with that knowledge and those skills, it's something you have to have if that's indeed a priority,” Rowles said. 'If it's not a priority, then I guess she's expendable - but I guess then we all are.”
As it stands, Washington High School will be the only comprehensive high school in the district with a librarian next school year.
The school had to make the same number of cuts as Jefferson and Kennedy, but Principal Ralph Plagman said he didn't consider cutting the librarian and instead cut core area teachers.
Because all district high school teachers will teach six courses instead of five next year, the reduction of teachers won't negatively affect class sizes, Plagman said.
Jefferson and Kennedy high school principals could not be reached for comment.
Librarians and other staff said they plan to fight the decision at Monday's 5:30 p.m. board meeting at the district's Educational Leadership and Support Center.
'If there's not opposition to it, I'm worried it's going to be a domino effect,” Goedeken said.
In this file photo from Sept. 22, 2010, Jefferson High School librarian Becky Johnson (left) helps sophomore Ashley Faulkner insert a photo into a project on a computer in the library before school starts. Johnson was chosen as the outstanding school librarian in the state. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
In this file photo from Sept. 22, 2010, Jefferson High School librarian Becky Johnson (left) helps sophomore Ashley Faulkner insert a photo into a project on a computer in the library before school starts. Johnson was chosen that year as the outstanding school librarian in the state. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)