My path crossed Jayne Downing’s when I attended an APSL meeting years ago to talk about advocacy. APSL was the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians, now defunct since there are approximately only 5 school librarians left in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Jayne has been a school librarian in several city schools for 34 years at elementary and middle school levels. She earned her MLS from Clarion and is nationally board certified (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) in both Early Childhood through Young Adult and Library Media (not easy!).

During her time at SDP, Jayne has seen a thriving school library department and program reduced to almost nothing. Years ago, SDP eliminated the classification of “school librarian” and all librarians were classed as “teachers.” This allowed the district to hide the number of actual librarians in the district. As principals, tasked with site-based decision-making, had to make difficult choices among nurses, counselors, and librarians, more and more principals cut school librarian positions, especially as librarians retired. In fact, finding out how many librarians still exist in the district is extremely difficult due to the classification change. The 2017-18 figure in the chart below is an anecdotally gathered number as the district cannot confirm it.

For many of us, the first week of September means the start of another school-year and the re-opening of our school libraries. This week also has some exciting events for all school librarians.

The September issue of District Administration Magazine features a 2-page advertorial which highlights how the new AASL National School Library Standards can help districts prepare their students for life-long learning. Be sure to share this article with your administrators via the direct link, or you can print out copies of the article to place directly in their hands. Visit AASL's Libraries Transform Campaign page for complete details, as well as access to helpful tools to help educate stakeholders about the importance of libraries.

If you follow Shannon McClintock Miller's blog, The Library Voice, you may have heard the good news...the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has released two crosswalks for their National School Library Standards! One is a crosswalk for the Future Ready Librarian Framework, and the other is a crosswalk for the ISTE Standards for Learners and Educators. 

You can download PDF's of each of these crosswalks from the AASL website.  In 2019, we can look forward to these crosswalks being web-based with helpful filtering and searching capabilities.

As you gear-up for a successful 2018-2019 year in your school library, be sure to take advantage of the tools available to align your teaching to the new AASL National School Library Standards.  Through funding from the Library Services and Technology Act, PSLA and the University of Pittsburgh have already begun training sessions around Pennsylvania to help you implement these standards into your school library program. Full details can be found on our AASL Standards Training  website.

By Deb Kachel, PSLA Legislative Liaison

Sadly, it is in April and May that I begin to get emails for panicked school librarians that staffing cuts have just been announced that will decimate school library programs for students and staff. Most librarian who contact me are completely surprised at the totally unexpected cuts and are so flummoxed that they have no idea what to do in response to the announcement. After having written so many emails on this situation, I am curating the best advice and sources here.

BEST ARTICLE (from a school librarian who fought this battle and won):

By Deb Kachel, PSLA Legislative Liaison

On December 14, Sara Frazier, librarian at Donegal High School (Mount Joy, PA), hosted a visit by Pennsylvania state Representative Dave Hickernell, a Republican serving parts of Lancaster and Dauphin counties who is also the Chair of the PA House Education Committee. Also attending were Cathi Fuhrman, PSLA Vice President, and Kevin Harley, PSLA’s communication strategist from Quantum Communications who helped to schedule the visit. Donegal’s Superintendent, Michael Lausch also visited with the Representative in the library. During the hour-long visit, Rep. Hickernell was most impressed with the technology in use in the library and how instruction is embedded in the school’s curriculum. He watched Sara teach a lesson on using Gale databases as part of a social studies unit. Sara reported that Rep. Hickernell seemed very impressed with what a school library offers to the school’s students in this small, middle-income, rural community which he represents.

by Heather Lister

Originally posted on June 1, 2017

In an interview with ABC27 on May 17th, Lower Dauphin Director of Community Relations claimed, “You do the best with the resources you have before you go back to the taxpayers and ask for more money.” This statement was in response to a growing number of community members speaking out against reducing the number certified librarians in the district, which is currently being proposed for the 17-18 school year. The district is arguing that by eliminating the position of middle school librarian, they will free up the funds to increase technology and make a more modern space. There are two issues I see with this. First, with this logic the district could eliminate math teachers if they invest in fancy calculators. Second, I had no indication that Lower Dauphin was under any sort of financial distress. So before making conclusions, I do what any good librarian does, I research.

As I began exploring the financial data to back up the district’s statement, I referenced several published documents from recent Board meetings. I learned that both State and Federal funding has increased, the employer rate for PSERS pension contributions is the lowest increase in 5 years, interest on investments increased 150%, contributions and donations from private sources is up 500%, and the district saw an increase in both property tax and earned income tax from the growth in the area. So why the need to cut positions? However, I understood that districts can’t rely on levels of federal and state funding so I continued searching. Just weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Department of Education released its updated financial reports for the 2015-16 school year. One of the biggest takeaways from this report is that Pennsylvania school districts’ general fund balances now top $4.4 BILLION dollars and there seems to be a growing awareness of this issue. Naturally I was curious what Lower Dauphin’s contribution was to this amass of money.

In 2005-06, Lower Dauphin’s general fund balance (also known as a “rainy day fund”), was $3.9 million. Just ten years later, the district is now sitting on a 528% balance increase, with a rainy-day fund of $21.1 million. $21.1 MILLION DOLLARS! Of course, that sounds like a lot to me, but I was curious how it compared with other schools. Fortunately, the Patriot News published a handy searchable database allowing readers to view a district’s fund balance in relation to their overall budget, so I was easily able to compare LD’s funds with other districts in the area. In 2014-15, Lower Dauphin’s fund balance was 35.6% of its budget. Meanwhile, Derry Township was at 13.6%, Palmyra at 11.4%, and Elizabethtown at 10.9%. Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale says it is “excessive” to maintain a fund balance greater than 20 percent of total expenditures.

by Jessica Kahn, Ph.D.
Originally posted on April 11, 2017