Spokane7
68°
May 20, 2011 in City
Mead to balance books with librarians
Mead School District is facing a $1 million budget gap, and one answer is putting its librarians’ teaching credentials back to work.
The shift of 12 librarians into the classroom saves $660,000, said Wayne Leonard, executive director of business management. “If we didn’t move them into the classroom, we would have to hire new people.”
The district’s libraries will remain open, but will be manned in some other way, Leonard said. The details are still being worked out.
Mead’s continued enrollment growth has saved the district from more drastic cuts, but in the past four years state funding has decreased and forced trims.
“We feel like we’ve protected people and programs pretty well during the last four years,” Leonard said. “This isn’t something we wanted to do, but at some point it gets more and more difficult to protect all the programs that you have.”
Other cuts include leaving an administrative position open – a savings of $120,000 – and an alternative school teaching position open – a savings of $86,000; and reducing the budget for supplies and materials – $134,000.
Jody Lawrence-Turner
1992 murder trial begins against sex offender 
Ninch on May 20 at 8:37 a.m.
Smart move. Regarding manning libraries… when I was in school the students did a lot of the library duties and I am sure it can still be done today.
OneFeistyGirl on May 20 at 1:49 p.m.
This is very disappointing and such a disservice to our children. Many of you may not know this but the librarians in our school district follow a curriculm and teach children during their library time. These dedicated teachers see each and every one of our children at least once a week. Many of these children do not have access to books at home or someone that will talk to them about the importance of reading and help them find appropriate and challenging material that will encourage them to read. Last year we lost our library paraprofessionals, now the librarians. I fear closing the libraries entirely will be next on the agenda. These budget cuts will have serious repercussions.