Column: What happens when librarians are no longer part of the HISD plan?

It was like reading the names of the dead, who must not be forgotten, at a memorial service. At Thursday’s Houston ISD board meeting, speaker after speaker came to the front of the room saying name after name. Only in this case each name was accompanied by a price tag.

“Almeda Elementary School. We purchased $23,816 worth of books. Next year our students will no longer have a library program. Alcott Elementary School purchased $6,570 worth of books. Anderson Elementary School $96,962…

“Crockett Elementary…next year, children won’t have access to $62,736 worth of books unless they keep their library. Crockett Elementary won Library Program of the Year this year. Forester Elementary $167,000…

“Henderson Elementary $75,743… Hobby Elementary $80,528…”

Elementary schools were followed by middle schools. And then the high schools. It took a while, even as speakers rushed to get through the minute allotted for each address.

By the time they finished, any hopes that Superintendent Mike Miles and his appointed board had this fury over the disappearance of libraries across the district had subsided, were dashed Thursday night.

In an effort notable for its comprehensiveness, library advocates, including Students in Need of Libraries in HISD and Friends of the HISD Libraries, through public records requests, have coordinated a list of all schools that, through ESSER federal funds, strengthened their libraries in 2020.

I was only told last year that they didn’t really fit the model of the new education system that Miles installed in many schools.

So what will happen to these thousands of books and the thousands of dollars of taxpayer money attached to them, especially in buildings where Team Centers have replaced libraries? We already know that librarians are leaving, if not already.

Jan Kramer, a HISD parent, said, “Next year, more than 70,000 students will not have access to library books. Three years ago, HISD decided that every student deserved a library that met Texas Library Standards and spent more than $15 million in federal ESSER funding for books and other resources. “7.5 million was spent last year on mostly NES rated schools. NES school books are hidden, stored or donated.

Or as Anne Furse, co-founder and board chair of the Friends of HISD Libraries later explained: “Various things happened to the books. (It’s) almost impossible to know. Some in storage. Some given. Some on shelves but not visible/accessible. Some are visible/accessible but no staff to encourage children to use them and no formal borrowing/tracking system. We consider these dollars wasted as books and other resources benefit very few, if any, students.

Sitting there listening to the list of species that are endangered or on the verge of extinction reminded me of a program that HISD started a few years ago as a supplement to what teachers were doing to try to overcome the obstacles that prevent many children from reading in class. level in third year.

This would not be a continuation of the lesson that the teacher had just given to the 1st and 2nd year students. The basic principle was that if you could sit a child in front of a book for even half an hour a week in a non-judgmental atmosphere, with a volunteer reading to them, that child could very well learn to love books.

I was one of the volunteers intrigued by the idea. Once a week I would drive to a school in the Sunnyside area, one year to one school, the next four years to another. Neither school won any awards for academic achievement.

Each year, I would be paired with two children and meet with them, one after the other, for 30 minutes each. After picking them up from class (they would bring a class book), we would go to a special library booth covered in bright colors where they would pick up the book they wanted to hear that week as well as the craft project who accompanied him. Then we would go to a table or two student desks and begin.

For the rest of the half hour, we would explore the book together. I read the book of the week, they read their class book to me. From time to time we made flash cards. Most often we did the craft or game that came with the book. Usually they had time to read another book at their request.

There was no testing. There was no grading of the work. There was just one oasis in the day where these kids could relax and feel special. And associate reading books with something that is both comfortable and entertaining.

Librarians are another kind of oasis when it comes to books. They are not there to test children on what they have learned. They do not require tracking reports on the books. They’re not just there to check out books, but to help kids find books that might make them happy, possibly entertain them, and maybe get them to read more.

Continued public criticism of the abandonment of librarians and books has been so strong that Superintendent Mike Miles, who previously said children could read books in their free time before and after school, recently changed his position in a dizzying manner when he justified this necessity. for massive staff cuts, to say he would like to have libraries in schools if he had the money.

These books were purchased for campuses in 2020 using federal ESSER funds. Exacerbated by learning loss due to COVID-19, many of these school libraries were severely deficient to begin with. And this has been happening for decades. Then-Superintendent Millard House II spoke with interested parties and distributed these funds to begin closing some shameful and long overdue equity gaps.

As Furse explains: “Many HISD libraries located in underserved neighborhoods were filled with unattractive, outdated, and worn books. The library staff and students really enjoyed these new books. Some furniture was also included, like shelves and comfortable seating, she said.

“Then a lot of these libraries were closed in 2023.”

Here’s what teachers and librarians know and what well-meaning volunteer readers come to find out. In too many – but not all – low-income households in HISD, there are no books in the home.

The idea that many of these families would regularly visit their neighborhood public library was dismissed as unrealistic by at least one speaker at Thursday night’s meeting. To say that this is what is happening is, at best, wishful thinking, and at worst, a disingenuous way of brushing aside a problem.

Getting back to Read Houston Read, after five years there was a change in program leadership at the HISD school where I had volunteered and the new person only really set things up more late in the year. I volunteered again, but never heard back. Then COVID-19 shut down and going to schools was no longer a possibility. You can still search for Read Houston Read on the HISD site but when you “click here” you come to a page saying, “This page is currently unavailable.” It’s a ghost that wanders the HISD site, never cleaned.

I don’t know if so many schools in the new education system would have the time or inclination to interrupt the schedule and pull a child out of class to have someone read to them. This method did not generate any data. Its results were, at best, anecdotal.

And perhaps this is a major problem for librarians. Some speakers Thursday referenced scientific studies showing that children with libraries do better in school, but without a clear way to quantify the impact of a library visit on STAAR scores, librarians are at a disadvantage for prove their worth.

When asked how his group would operate if HISD libraries disappeared, Furse says, “We started by promoting the importance of school libraries and purchasing resources for underserved HISD libraries. Then Miles came along and the libraries started disappearing. Now we no longer buy books, rugs, carts and other supplies. »

So what does an organization dedicated to getting more books into school libraries do when those same books aren’t in demand?

“Our current focus is on defending libraries and protesting the continued cuts to staff and resources,” Furse said. Ironically, on May 21, they are hosting a year-end celebration for 75 years of HISD Libraries and honoring the HISD Library Program of the Year. Somehow it’s hard to see Miles participating.

“Part of our mission is to support library staff and develop them professionally,” Furse said. “That’s all we can do at the moment.” ”