Methacton School District's New Budget - Eliminate Full Time Librarian position

Methacton School District's proposed 2013-2014 budget will reduce the elementary school positions by eliminating one art teacher, one music teacher, one phys. ed. teacher, and one librarian.  The Final Budget Adoption will be voted on by the school board at the 7pm meeting at Methacton High School. If it is approved, Woodland Elementary School will no longer have a librarian of its own. Two of the other elementary schools will lend their librarians to Woodland to conduct library classes for the Woodland children. I believe that art, music, and gym are imperative in children’s education, but I know that losing a full time librarian is going to negatively impact their education more quickly and thoroughly.  Research shows that students benefit academically from having a full time librarian in their school library. With a full time librarian (as opposed to part time, or no librarian) PSSA scores are higher.  Rather than eliminating a librarian position, Methacton should go in the other direction. A couple of years ago, Methacton School District eliminated all the Library Assistant positions. Perkiomen Valley School District still has a full time librarian and a library assistant at each of their four elementary schools. For the past several years at Woodland Elementary, the librarian was also used in the classroom to help the teacher in various classes when there was not a library class in session. It would be better for the elementary school children if they had a full time librarian in their library during the whole school day.  The following research papers show that the previous statements are true. Please look through them. Please go to the Methacton School District School Board Meeting to show your support of our children’s quality education, and try to prevent Methacton School District from lowering the quality of their education. I know that this is the proverbial eleventh hour, but it is possible to have an effect if enough people show that this is important to them.

Pennsylvania student scores and librarian staffing:  http://www.elc-pa.org/Creating21stCenturyLearners_LibraryDataReport.10.17.12.pdf

this dissertation shows that student achievement and staffing correlate at all grade levels:  http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9800/m2/1/high_res_d/dissertation.pdf

another study that speaks to staffing:  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/hal_lm_schllibstudy03_76626_7.pdf

and another one:  http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/pages/uploaded_files/Make%20The%20Connection.pdf

a good article with statistics nationwide:
http://www.slj.com/2011/09/industry-news/something-to-shout-about-new-research-shows-that-more-librarians-means-higher-reading-scores/

http://outstandingschoollibraries.org/Home.html

infographics:  http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslissues/advocacy/AASL_infographic_strongstudents-2013.pdf

http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslissues/brochures/administrators_color-intro.pdf