dampscribbler | An Open Letter to the Beaverton School District and its families

It came to my attention this morning that Beaverton School District is planning to cut ALL of its school Librarians -- aka Media Specialists -- next year as part of the many adjustments it needs to make to meet its budget. This is a huge mistake. The Media Specialist is one of very few teachers at a school who has regular contact with every child in the school each
and every year that the child attends the school. The Media Specialist develops and delivers curriculum to help kids to use not only the physical library but the technology resources that are critical for information gathering in today's world. The Media Specialist guides students *and* teachers in acquiring, evaluating, and using the information required to meet their educational goals both in and beyond the classroom.

I am aware that Beaverton School District is facing a serious reduction in budget this year, and as a result has no choice but to cut staff positions and instruction days. Next year, teachers will face classrooms that are more crowded and will have fewer days to teach the required curricula to their students. With the loss of the Media Specialists, the classroom teachers will also have to add media training into their crowded curriculum, *and* they will be lacking the in-school resource that they turned to for help with media in the first place, resulting in a double-burden. The long-term result will be less guidance and instruction in the use of a variety of media resources for all of the kids in the district. The Media Specialist is a trained professional who provides necessary support to every student and staff in the school. This function cannot be fulfilled by volunteers from the community.

Eliminating the position of Media Specialist district-wide now means that when the economic environment finally improves the district will have to essentially create a "new" job class in order to begin hiring Media Specialists
again. This will likely pose a huge, perhaps insurmountable hurdle to getting these important professionals back into our schools.

Tomorrow evening, May 1, at Sunset High School at 6:30 PM is the ONLY public comment meeting for the school budgets. It's the families' and community's one opportunity to publicly address this issue, and I hope you will show up to
support our schools and our Media Specialists.

If you cannot attend but want to register your concern, please fill out the following form and submit it or email a school board member as soon as possible.

http://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/pdf/bus_off/bus_off_bus_off_Budget%20Suggestion%2\0form.pdf