Love Your Library

On April 12, I discovered that the district had cut funding for all school library media assistants in Clarke County.  I love serving as a school library media specialist in Clarke County.  It’s where my son attends school.

It took me several days to process the shock, and to begin to realize the implications for the school library program at our school.  We serve a high-poverty population of nearly six hundred; I hadn’t realized cutting our program could be a consideration.

I am constantly working to improve our program, which cannot survive in its current iteration (much less the one I envisioned for next year) without the help of a trained assistant.  She performs numerous tasks: assisting students and teachers in finding and checking out books and materials, supervising while I teach (at least half the day), while I attend planning meetings, write grants, create resource lists, order new materials, etc.

My letter to Athens, our school board, and our superintendent, will be published today, highlighting some of my concerns. Nationwide, we all need to speak up for our libraries.