Retiring school librarian Anna Barber is sharply critical of plans by Great Salt Bay school officials to fill her position with an education technician.
School officials say it is simply a question of money.
Barber, who finishes her final school year this week, couldn’t disagree more. “There has to be money there,” she said.
Recently, the GSB budget approved by voters at a town meeting, was amended to include – at Barber’s request – an extra $25,000 to allow the school to hire a librarian as her replacement. Last week, the board decided to hire an education technician, not a degreed librarian.
“What will the voters think when they vote to put the money in the school budget to hire a librarian and the board hires an ed tech,” Barber said.
School board president Jim Cosgrove says the $25,000 added to the budget, combined with the $16,900 originally budgeted is not enough to hire an experienced librarian with a master’s degree.
“She miscalculated,” Cosgrove said. “If she had proposed a figure that would have allowed us to hire an experienced librarian, we would have done so.”
Barber admitted she may have miscalculated. For Cosgrove, it is all about the money. “We are committed to a full-time librarian but not next year, unless we cut the funding elsewhere,” he said.
“This is the cut that will least affect the students,” he said explaining the board has already slashed budgets for athletics and some transportation.
Barber, who worked for the school for 29 years, said she was paid $58,000 this year. She was the last full-time librarian in Union 74.
She argues the school board could have found the money or could have hired an entry-level librarian for less money than she was paid.
For example, she said a veteran kindergarten teacher is leaving this year and will be replaced by an entry-level teacher. This would free up enough money to fund the full-time librarian position, she said.
According to Union 74 Superintendent Bob Bouchard, in order to fund a position, officials must add insurance and fringe benefits to the raw salary figures. This could push the cost for an experienced librarian with a master’s degree to $70,000 a year.
Bouchard said school systems all over the state are wrestling with budget cuts and, because of the economy and declining tax collections, will likely face additional budget cuts next year.
“The board did not want to hire someone this year and have to lay them off next year, Bouchard said.
Although at a special town meeting on the district budget, the town voted to fund a full-time librarian, Bouchard said the final authority rests with the elected school board.
“They are the deciders. It is their job. It is their role,” Bouchard said.
As she cleaned up her things and put the library in order for the last time, Barber said she listened to the board’s arguments, but still does not agree with the decision.
“When I retired, I believed the board would replace me with a full-time librarian and an aide. It is a two-person job,” she said.
She said the decision not to replace her with a full-time librarian indicates that little value is placed on either literacy or fostering a commitment to life – long learning.
“I am afraid they will turn the library into a book warehouse,” she said.
