No full-time school librarians? Parents rally for staffing at SLO County district
A small group of San Luis Obispo parents and students are rallying to shore up staffing at school libraries, as budget cuts are expected to leave the district’s elementary schoolers without full-time librarians.
According to assistant superintendent of educational services Lisa Yamashita, the San Luis Coastal school district plans to split librarians between the district’s 10 elementary schools starting next year.
The library hours will range depending on the number of students and classes hosted at each site. Larger schools like C.L. Smith and Los Ranchos will keep their libraries open four days a week, while smaller schools like Teach and Del Mar will be cut down to two days a week.
The middle and high schools will remain fully staffed, Yamashita told The Tribune on Wednesday via email.
But some parents and students are concerned that cutting hours at elementary school libraries will have negative impacts on students — especially the youngest learners.
The group is asking the district to allow librarians to stay at their chosen school sites for the maximum number of hours allowed to provide consistency for students, rather than shuffling staff from site to site. They are also asking the district to consider collaborating with parent volunteers or the SLO County Libraries to support the existing staff and programming, according to materials shared with The Tribune.
Chelsea Ruiz, board president of the Teach Elementary Booster Club, is heading up the advocacy.
“Elementary libraries are not simply systems for checking books in and out,” Ruiz told the school board at a meeting Tuesday night. “They’re where children discover a love of reading and learning, build research, digital literacy and critical thinking skills, and complete projects with support from trusted library staff for many families, especially at our Title I schools.”
She continued: “These spaces and relationships matter for far more than the number of books being checked out, and so what we’re asking is to allow the elementary library technicians to stay at their preferred sites and give the school sites the ability to incorporate creative solutions.”
Ruiz’s daughter, Holland, a fourth-grader at Teach, also spoke to the board.
“My librarian is a very kind, funny and enthusiastic teacher, and I would be so devastated for her to leave,” she said.
Olivia Ventura, also a fourth grade student at Teach, urged board members to allow librarians to stay at their preferred sites “as much as possible.”
“On our school’s campus we don’t have a playground, so you usually only ... do sports, run, walk, or talk to friends at recess and lunch, but some people don’t feel like doing those things,” she said. “So, instead, they can go to the library, and there people can read, play chess or do a puzzle.“
Another district parent, Adrienne Harris, submitted a letter to the board about the issue.
“I ask that if you get additional funding from the state, PG&E, or another source that librarians are one of the first items you bring back to full staffing, especially at our Title 1 and Dual Immersion Schools,” she wrote. “As I have said before, literacy is one of the core areas of instruction at the elementary school level.”
Yamashita told The Tribune that the district’s libraries continue to be “thriving hubs” available for the uses that Tuesday’s speakers identified.
Yamashita added that classes will have access to libraries for learning under the supervision of other staff, even when a librarian is not present.
“Looking ahead, we will continue to monitor our budget and will make adjustments to library assignments next year if or when additional funds become available to devote to library services,” she said.
Parents advocate for more aides at coastal elementary school
Library staffing wasn’t the only topic of concern for parents at Tuesday’s meeting.
A group of parents also showed up to urge the district to ensure that two aides are put in kindergarten classrooms at Baywood Elementary, which offers a Spanish-English dual-immersion program.
Advocates said the class aide split between the two kindergarten classes often got pulled to substitute in other classes, leaving kindergarteners without an aide, and said it’s important for students in a dual-immersion program to have at least two Spanish-speaking adults in the class so they can hear and absorb the language.
Sunshine Frawley, a transitional kindergarten teacher at Baywood, was one of those who showed up to advocate for a second aide.
“I strongly urge the district to find at least one full-time aide for each kindergarten class,” she said. “This is not a matter of convenience. It directly impacts classroom safety, instructional quality, language development and teacher retention.”
The Tribune reached out to the school district for a response to the Baywood concerns on Wednesday, but did not immediately receive a response.
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