This North Carolina school district is getting rid of all of its librarians

A North Carolina school system plans to eliminate all of its librarian positions as part of a cost-cutting measure.

The Franklin County school board adopted a budget plan last month that moves its school library media coordinators into vacant classroom teaching positions. The district plans to instead staff school libraries with less qualified media assistants for the 2024-25 school year.

“Franklin County Schools is committed to maintaining our libraries,” Superintendent Rhonda Schuhler said in a message sent to employees in April. “We will not be closing our libraries. We will continue to have library time, book checkout, STEM activities, media skills development, etc.”

Members of the N.C. School Library Media Association (NCSLMA) plan to attend Monday’s school board meeting to urge the district to reverse the school librarian cuts.

“The unconscionable decision that Franklin County Schools made to remove all of their certified School Librarians and deprive every student in Franklin County of a certified School Librarian is one that weighs heavy on all of us,” NCSLMA said in a position statement.

It’s not immediately clear how many other North Carolina school systems may also be cutting their media specialist positions.

School district losing COVID dollars

Like school districts across the nation, Franklin County has relied on federal COVID aid that’s going away this year. The district has received $30 million in federal COVID relief over the past four years.

Franklin has used the COVID aid to pay employees a longevity bonus of between $500 and $4,500 a year based on how long they’ve worked in the district. Schuhler said the bonus has allowed the district to keep pay competitive with other districts.

The district also used the COVID money to pay for intervention teachers in elementary schools and instructional coaches in middle schools. Schuhler said those positions have helped raise student achievement.

District thinking of the ‘big picture’

The district plans to use local funds now to keep the longevity bonus, instructional coaches and intervention teachers. To help come up with the money, the district is making cuts such as eliminating the librarian positions.

Schuhler told employees she had to think about the “big picture” of providing every student with an educational opportunity that will prepare them for life beyond the classroom. She also pointed to how there’s been significant turnover in the past five years in the district’s media specialist positions.

“We want to maximize impact on students as they develop literacy skills, and we must ensure that every teacher has the support system in place that is needed for them to be effective and feel successful in their day to day work,” Schuhler said in her message to employees. “We want to accomplish this while also keeping our media centers open and in full use for our students.”

She said all the librarians will have positions elsewhere in the district with no negative impact on their current salary.

Overall, the school system is asking county commissioners for a $5.2 million increase in current expense funding. Of that amount, the district says $2.5 million will go toward the longevity bonus and $1.85 million will go to charter schools due to their increased enrollment.

Group says school librarians are essential

NCSMLA launched a campaign to try to save the librarian positions. This includes asking the public to sign an online petition.

The media assistants who will now run the libraries won’t have the master’s degree level education and specific state-mandated training required for licensed school library media specialists, according to NCSMLA.

The group says it is essential to a school’s success to have a certified librarian.

“The decision by Franklin County Schools to proceed without certified School Librarians threatens to disadvantage its students relative to their peers, both within North Carolina and nationally, in these crucial educational domains — an outcome we find deeply concerning,” NCSMLA said.

But Schuhler defended the media assistants that will be assigned to each library.

“We have had instructional assistants serve in this capacity before that have done an excellent job,” the superintendent said in her memo to staff.