Back in 2012, when I was a substitute for Pittsburgh Public, I worked in nine different schools, preparing under- and unused school libraries for use. A new decision by Linda Lane, the Superintendent at the time and the Board had been made. At that time, if a school could afford a librarian in their budget, they had one. Lane's decision changed librarians' jobs so that each elementary and K-8 Librarian had to go to FIVE schools. That way, the reasoning went, K-12 schools would have a librarian and the District could boast about equity for all.
My job was to go to those spider-webby, pathetic, no-book, stanky, broken furniture shells where no librarian had worked for a long time, where there was no joy, no love and definitely no place for children and make them serviceable. This position had been created by the brilliance and forethought of Barbara Rudiak, who was overseeing the Librarians at that time. She alone at the District realized that libraries had sat un- or underused for quite awhile and would need work before they would be ready for kids-- and that Librarians trying to change from serving a population of say, 500 children and 12,000 books to 2500 children and 60,000 books would not have time to do it.
It was a great job. I loved it. I found some libraries, like my first job at Lincoln Elementary in Larmier, that just needed books put in Dewey order, and a deep clean. That historic room had a stage, where it could be that Mary Lou Williams, the mother of American jazz, may have played recitals as the little school girl she was when she went to that school. Offices were built on the stage, and it was not used as one, but part of it was still visible, its light wooden floor gleaming. The library collection was notable-- full of appropriately African-American focused biographies, picture books, etc., at many reading levels. The library there even had a cozy reading nook with carpeted stadium seating, and gigantic windows that flooded the room with light and fresh air. When I had finished my last lemon oil cleaning of the wooden shelves and created gorgeous displays of lovely books, I was happy, my Principal was happy, and I was optimistic about my next placement.
Then I got to Manchester K-8 in Manchester, on the North Side. I swear to God, that locked door on the second floor creaked open when we got the key, with some difficulty. It screakked open like a horror movie, telling us DON'T GO IN THIS ROOM--- EVER. The janitor left, and I entered. What I saw was not like Lincoln. It was what I imagine a prison library might look like in Alabama if the people running it really, really hated the inmates. You can find the story of what happened here.
I went to seven different schools after that, all of them in varying states of disarray, despair and dissolution. I wrote blog posts about it. With Jessie Ramey, the Yinzercation community, and people of good faith everywhere, we did more book drives for those libraries. I did not get hired by Pittsburgh Public Schools, although I hoped with the hard work I had done, the advocacy for the school libraries, the total rehab of one of their school libraries through my 24/7 obsessive work-- I might. Nope. I found a job with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and started a different journey.
What happened to those libraries and librarians, when they went from one library to five? Let's start with the librarians. Some used other teaching certifications to get other jobs in the PPS-- fleeing the set-up for failure as soon as they could. Some left the district-- some of the best librarians in our field. Some hung in there and tried as hard as they could to manage seeing children every 6 days-- as elementary and some K-8's are on a 6-day schedule. That meant that in the name of "equity," the kids who had had a great librarian and library now lost that program entirely, unless their school had the funds to pay for a full-time librarian differently. Only Colfax, to my knowledge, did that, retaining the magical Jane McKee.
The other kids saw a librarian three times a month, at most. If the school was large, and there were, say five rounds of Kindergarten, the librarian might only see Kindergarten one of those days. The Principal might decide the other days (2 that month) would be devoted to the five rounds of first grade she had, and 5 rounds of second grade, meaning that third through eighth grade had no library at all. The equity plan was not equitable at all.
During the 15 days the librarian was not in the library, teachers, staff, etc., "borrowed" items from libraries, meaning well, I am sure. Libraries began to lose irreplaceable books at a record rate. Since books run around $25/each, and the staff member who is meant to care for the collection was no longer there, libraries bled expensive materials. When children looked for sequels, beloved favorites, nonfiction they needed, they could not find them. With fewer important and relevant books and no librarian present, libraries began to feel irrelevant-- especially because, with nobody in the library, Principals started to forget about how important libraries were.
My sub work had only taken me to nine libraries. We have 54 schools in our District. That means that 45 schools were not prepared for kids-- although, of course, some of those had full-time librarians. Whatever the number of libraries is that needed rehab--- they did not receive it before their children arrived. At least two libraries to this day are not cataloged. One shares a classroom with a Social Studies teacher, who has commandeered the circulation desk. The Librarian has a tiny desk in which he has to check out books and scrunch to see kids.
Faison was one of Pittsburgh Public Schools' jewels. Newly built in Homewood, it was a glorious building boasting an operatically fine school library, shaped like a ship, with the tallest windows shining down on a huge, carpeted stadium seated story circle. It had a giant office for the Librarian, who at that time was Ginger Lambeth, an expert in collection development. Her collection would make any librarian cry real tears of joy. She must have had 12 different Martin Luther King Jr. biographies-- all in different reading levels, so that when his birthday came around, children at Faison could be successful in reading about him. Snake books, shark books, scary books, funny books, joke books-- the hits!! She had them, and she had them in great numbers, so that every child who visited could find something they loved that they could read. She collected the very finest, rare African-American folk tales by true masters like Virginia Hamilton, Gerald McDermott, the Pinkneys, San Souci.
Now Faison's bookshelves are all but empty. Reading Is Fundamental gives paperback books away during the Librarian's periods with children, and by the Principal's orders, she is relegated to helping them, not running her classes. Because the library had been broken in to classrooms, one of them a science classroom, the librarian is occasionally sprayed with bugs, like living confetti, in the books that remain.
Lincoln's library, the one I so proudly put back together, lemon oiling that lovely light wood before I set up the prettiest and most interesting books on display, has been destroyed in favor of a "STEAM" room. All the books the author of this destruction chose to keep from the collection are in the tiny little book nook, which used to have the stadium seating for kids to listen to stories in.
Our Superintendent now, Dr. Hamlet, undid some of the damage Dr. Lane and that Board did. He and that iteration of the Board made each Librarian have two libraries instead of five. This has been a much better arrangement. However, enormous problems remain. When Principals retain a line-item for library budgets, they almost invariably keep it, and do not give it to the librarian to purchase books. This is especially troubling as we come out of the five-librarian regime. The need to undo damage is desperate, and many Principals do not currently understand what a good librarian does, or what a good library program looks like. It's been a long time since they saw one.
That being said, Principals everywhere are forcing Librarians during Library periods to put students on Edmentum, Naviance, Credit Recovery, etc. in order for kids to prepare for standardized tests, etc. In Jane McKee's library at Colfax, the new librarian is being made to teach typing. Although this should not need to be said, library is a time for children that should exist out of the norm of the school day. It should not be about work sheets, standardized tests, reading levels, math, or boring things of any kind. It should be about imagination, joy, fun, characters, love, acceptance, other cultures, meeting children where they are, and celebrating the excitement of books-- and/or building that excitement.
That building is the project of library. Anything outside of the building of joy around books is a mistake. Principals and admin MUST allow Librarians, the only teacher in the building who is required to have a Master's Degree, to do our jobs the way we have been trained to do them. This is not happening in most places.
This, along with not allowing the librarians library budgets, accounts in part for our "achievement gap." Hiring "librarians" who are teachers with other teaching certifications who did not obtain an MLIS from an ALA-certified school is another one-- the only form of training available to become a librarian. Living in Pittsburgh, the city from which you have only to move if you are African-American to obtain a better life is another. (Pittsburgh Race Report) Some of the worst air, water and soil quality in the country. Mismanagement of librarians and library resources for at least a decade in our District..the list goes on.
All of this has lead me to this final point: Look. The geographic areas of our city with the highest concentrations of poverty and African-American children have unfunded school libraries. Why is this of particular importance, besides the vulnerability of the children? Because you can't always walk to a public library. When I did my student teaching at Faison, little ones came in crying on more than one occasion because a drive-by had them dodging and hiding behind cars on their walk to school. Children need to get books to put in their backpacks at school, and return them to school, even if the greatest public library in the world is five doors down. And not just because of drive-bys. Some kids have to take care of siblings, elder family members, or work after school. They need their school library to function.
Faison, Westinghouse-- no school library budget. That's Homewood.
Arlington is a new building, and it was built without a library. So there's that for the kids on the South Side.
Miller and Weil haven't had a Librarian all year, although Weil just got one. U-Prep just got a Library budget, but it is limited. So that's the Hill.
King and Morrow have no Library budget. I have a decent one at Perry, and my Principal supports me. I am so very grateful. Thank God!! But the babies on the North Side deserve better.
The current iteration of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors has laid out the following incredible scenario: after approving most of Dr. Hamlet's decisions for the years of his tenure, they find his spending out of control and controversial. They disapprove of this, and want change. However, they have not raised taxes to meet the needs of school children in five years. So-- they approved a higher budget, but will not raise taxes to fund their budget because of their concerns about Dr. Hamlet's spending. That means that as of January first, the school District will shut down for lack of funds unless today, they come to some compromise and change their thinking.
Some Board members are loudly calling for cuts, which mean cutting staff and programs. The last things they added were school nurses and librarians. I dearly hope we do not go back to the bad old days of one librarian for five schools. Our children deserve so much more.
I am exhausted. My heart hurts. Every Board member should spend one full day in a different school once a week, talking and mostly listening to teachers and children, not administration. We are the ones in the trenches, and we know what is going on.
I hope very much, that unlike the Principal of one of those schools I subbed in in 2012, the Board members have not decided that the District would be better off "charterized." But I fear that is the goal and the direction of too many of them. We'll see. And until we see what they will do, we teachers and librarians will do what we always do: love on kids. It's our daily work, and it is worth while. Parents: you hold all the cards. Please, please make your opinions known about what you want. A tax increase to fund our city's future. A line item for library budgets controlled by Ann Fillmore, the person in charge of school libraries, not school Principals. A high standard for hiring school librarians. No standardized-testing prep and no computers in Library class!! And let TEACHERS TEACH!!
I went to seven different schools after that, all of them in varying states of disarray, despair and dissolution. I wrote blog posts about it. With Jessie Ramey, the Yinzercation community, and people of good faith everywhere, we did more book drives for those libraries. I did not get hired by Pittsburgh Public Schools, although I hoped with the hard work I had done, the advocacy for the school libraries, the total rehab of one of their school libraries through my 24/7 obsessive work-- I might. Nope. I found a job with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and started a different journey.
What happened to those libraries and librarians, when they went from one library to five? Let's start with the librarians. Some used other teaching certifications to get other jobs in the PPS-- fleeing the set-up for failure as soon as they could. Some left the district-- some of the best librarians in our field. Some hung in there and tried as hard as they could to manage seeing children every 6 days-- as elementary and some K-8's are on a 6-day schedule. That meant that in the name of "equity," the kids who had had a great librarian and library now lost that program entirely, unless their school had the funds to pay for a full-time librarian differently. Only Colfax, to my knowledge, did that, retaining the magical Jane McKee.
The other kids saw a librarian three times a month, at most. If the school was large, and there were, say five rounds of Kindergarten, the librarian might only see Kindergarten one of those days. The Principal might decide the other days (2 that month) would be devoted to the five rounds of first grade she had, and 5 rounds of second grade, meaning that third through eighth grade had no library at all. The equity plan was not equitable at all.
During the 15 days the librarian was not in the library, teachers, staff, etc., "borrowed" items from libraries, meaning well, I am sure. Libraries began to lose irreplaceable books at a record rate. Since books run around $25/each, and the staff member who is meant to care for the collection was no longer there, libraries bled expensive materials. When children looked for sequels, beloved favorites, nonfiction they needed, they could not find them. With fewer important and relevant books and no librarian present, libraries began to feel irrelevant-- especially because, with nobody in the library, Principals started to forget about how important libraries were.
My sub work had only taken me to nine libraries. We have 54 schools in our District. That means that 45 schools were not prepared for kids-- although, of course, some of those had full-time librarians. Whatever the number of libraries is that needed rehab--- they did not receive it before their children arrived. At least two libraries to this day are not cataloged. One shares a classroom with a Social Studies teacher, who has commandeered the circulation desk. The Librarian has a tiny desk in which he has to check out books and scrunch to see kids.
Faison was one of Pittsburgh Public Schools' jewels. Newly built in Homewood, it was a glorious building boasting an operatically fine school library, shaped like a ship, with the tallest windows shining down on a huge, carpeted stadium seated story circle. It had a giant office for the Librarian, who at that time was Ginger Lambeth, an expert in collection development. Her collection would make any librarian cry real tears of joy. She must have had 12 different Martin Luther King Jr. biographies-- all in different reading levels, so that when his birthday came around, children at Faison could be successful in reading about him. Snake books, shark books, scary books, funny books, joke books-- the hits!! She had them, and she had them in great numbers, so that every child who visited could find something they loved that they could read. She collected the very finest, rare African-American folk tales by true masters like Virginia Hamilton, Gerald McDermott, the Pinkneys, San Souci.
Now Faison's bookshelves are all but empty. Reading Is Fundamental gives paperback books away during the Librarian's periods with children, and by the Principal's orders, she is relegated to helping them, not running her classes. Because the library had been broken in to classrooms, one of them a science classroom, the librarian is occasionally sprayed with bugs, like living confetti, in the books that remain.
Lincoln's library, the one I so proudly put back together, lemon oiling that lovely light wood before I set up the prettiest and most interesting books on display, has been destroyed in favor of a "STEAM" room. All the books the author of this destruction chose to keep from the collection are in the tiny little book nook, which used to have the stadium seating for kids to listen to stories in.
Our Superintendent now, Dr. Hamlet, undid some of the damage Dr. Lane and that Board did. He and that iteration of the Board made each Librarian have two libraries instead of five. This has been a much better arrangement. However, enormous problems remain. When Principals retain a line-item for library budgets, they almost invariably keep it, and do not give it to the librarian to purchase books. This is especially troubling as we come out of the five-librarian regime. The need to undo damage is desperate, and many Principals do not currently understand what a good librarian does, or what a good library program looks like. It's been a long time since they saw one.
That being said, Principals everywhere are forcing Librarians during Library periods to put students on Edmentum, Naviance, Credit Recovery, etc. in order for kids to prepare for standardized tests, etc. In Jane McKee's library at Colfax, the new librarian is being made to teach typing. Although this should not need to be said, library is a time for children that should exist out of the norm of the school day. It should not be about work sheets, standardized tests, reading levels, math, or boring things of any kind. It should be about imagination, joy, fun, characters, love, acceptance, other cultures, meeting children where they are, and celebrating the excitement of books-- and/or building that excitement.
That building is the project of library. Anything outside of the building of joy around books is a mistake. Principals and admin MUST allow Librarians, the only teacher in the building who is required to have a Master's Degree, to do our jobs the way we have been trained to do them. This is not happening in most places.
This, along with not allowing the librarians library budgets, accounts in part for our "achievement gap." Hiring "librarians" who are teachers with other teaching certifications who did not obtain an MLIS from an ALA-certified school is another one-- the only form of training available to become a librarian. Living in Pittsburgh, the city from which you have only to move if you are African-American to obtain a better life is another. (Pittsburgh Race Report) Some of the worst air, water and soil quality in the country. Mismanagement of librarians and library resources for at least a decade in our District..the list goes on.
All of this has lead me to this final point: Look. The geographic areas of our city with the highest concentrations of poverty and African-American children have unfunded school libraries. Why is this of particular importance, besides the vulnerability of the children? Because you can't always walk to a public library. When I did my student teaching at Faison, little ones came in crying on more than one occasion because a drive-by had them dodging and hiding behind cars on their walk to school. Children need to get books to put in their backpacks at school, and return them to school, even if the greatest public library in the world is five doors down. And not just because of drive-bys. Some kids have to take care of siblings, elder family members, or work after school. They need their school library to function.
Faison, Westinghouse-- no school library budget. That's Homewood.
Arlington is a new building, and it was built without a library. So there's that for the kids on the South Side.
Miller and Weil haven't had a Librarian all year, although Weil just got one. U-Prep just got a Library budget, but it is limited. So that's the Hill.
King and Morrow have no Library budget. I have a decent one at Perry, and my Principal supports me. I am so very grateful. Thank God!! But the babies on the North Side deserve better.
The current iteration of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors has laid out the following incredible scenario: after approving most of Dr. Hamlet's decisions for the years of his tenure, they find his spending out of control and controversial. They disapprove of this, and want change. However, they have not raised taxes to meet the needs of school children in five years. So-- they approved a higher budget, but will not raise taxes to fund their budget because of their concerns about Dr. Hamlet's spending. That means that as of January first, the school District will shut down for lack of funds unless today, they come to some compromise and change their thinking.
Some Board members are loudly calling for cuts, which mean cutting staff and programs. The last things they added were school nurses and librarians. I dearly hope we do not go back to the bad old days of one librarian for five schools. Our children deserve so much more.
I am exhausted. My heart hurts. Every Board member should spend one full day in a different school once a week, talking and mostly listening to teachers and children, not administration. We are the ones in the trenches, and we know what is going on.
I hope very much, that unlike the Principal of one of those schools I subbed in in 2012, the Board members have not decided that the District would be better off "charterized." But I fear that is the goal and the direction of too many of them. We'll see. And until we see what they will do, we teachers and librarians will do what we always do: love on kids. It's our daily work, and it is worth while. Parents: you hold all the cards. Please, please make your opinions known about what you want. A tax increase to fund our city's future. A line item for library budgets controlled by Ann Fillmore, the person in charge of school libraries, not school Principals. A high standard for hiring school librarians. No standardized-testing prep and no computers in Library class!! And let TEACHERS TEACH!!
