Board of Ed Reconsiders WHS Library Cut

The Westfield Board of Education and district superintendent agreed on Tuesday to reexamine one of the staff position cuts made necessary by budget constraints after the Westfield High School’s head librarian, parents and a student made pleas to keep a library secretary to maintain services for students.

“Parents are very concerned about the library,” said Peggy Oster, a mother of three WHS students and next year’s Parent Teacher Student Organization president, speaking at the board meeting. “Kids need more time and more services. Cutting this secretary is not meeting the needs of parents and teachers.”

The pleas from her and others came after District Superintendent Margaret Dolan said they also had to eliminate seven teacher positions and 24 total positions in the 2009-2010 budget.

The high school library already lost one of its staff members last year and three librarians cannot do the job of five staff, said Emily Snitow, the library coordinator. Losing the secretary is likely to reduce hours the library is open for students and reduce their ability to provide extra services such as interlibrary loans, she said.

“Librarians will not be able to help students if they are doing the secretarial tasks,” Snitow said.

Other members of the public suggested having the library clerical work done by volunteers or librarians at the intermediate schools. In addition, it was proposed having teachers juggle hall monitoring duties with supervising the library in order to relieve librarians of that duty.

“This was one of the difficult cuts but we have three very good librarians and there had to be a cut of a secretary at the high school,” Dolan said.

Students or the PTSO raising money to fund the position was also suggested, but Dolan pointed out that wouldn’t be a stable way to fund a staff position.

Parents also spoke in support of one of the elementary school teachers being cut, asking the board to remember him if another position in the district opens up.