The community also needs to question the recent reorganization structure. Are we just switching people around based on a few people at the top deciding who they liked the most? Who are these people and what qualifications do they have to make such a major decision for PPS? I can name a few and I believe the process was not very transparent and evidence-based.

The community also needs to ask questions about the stimulus money which is approximately $12 million. How is this going to be spent and what public input process has been in place to ensure equitable resource allocation? The school board needs information to make informed decision and the public needs to be consulted. At this point, this money seems to be given to one person (Susan Kosmala, Director for Title I) and she intends to hire an assistant Director using the stimulus money) This position is created to help Ms. Kosmala do her job. The public needs to know how this Assistant Director’s position going to be sustainable after it is gone. It needs to know how the district intends to put money into good use. So far, as we discover, the process is not transparent and the money has not always been put in good use.

We need to hold Ms. Carole Smith and the school board responsible for poor decisions and unfair deicsion making process.

Library assistants and clerks are classified employees, so we only earn half the pay of teachers. (Cheaper to hire, and are generally expected by principals and staff to teach. Which we can do — if we want to go against the terms of our contract and flout the teachers’ union. Which we don’t want to do. Thus the bucking of heads begins.)

We save money by having libraries staffed — grant money for books doesn’t go unspent, collections are tracked so books don’t walk out the door (thus costing the taxpayers more money, when books need to be replaced). The International Baccalaureate programs require librarians (not clerks). Students who have librarians have a better shot of learning to read, graduating, getting jobs… (…staying out of jail. Literacy is a beautiful thing).

Many of us write grants to fund our positions and buy books; we also hold book fairs and sell coffee and art as fundraisers. I am hoping that this coming school year with PPS — with a librarian or clerk in every building for the first time in a number of years — that the “real” teachers are not hostile toward us.

It’s a terrible message to send to kids, when their library is dark, with the door locked.

I’d welcome a little more information about the furlough days. I thought the furlough days would be the non-student days that teachers use to prepare before, during and at the end of the school year. Having witnessed most teachers coming to work a week or more before and staying a week or more after their contract year in order to prepare, I’d have to say that teachers already are working for free and this year they will need to do even more without pay.

To truly expect that teachers aren’t being asked to work for free would mean that the furlough days would be during regular student days with entirely closed school buildings.