Advocacy
Let's Keep the RBHS Library Alive and Relevant
Write to Advocate for RBHS Library!
The PUSD Administration gives a low priority to all of its school libraries, and a majority of the Board of Education acquiesces in their neglect. Perhaps if they heard from enough of you, they might provide more funding for library staffing. Board members Kimberley Beatty and Charles Sellers support our advocacy. Please e-mail the others and get them on board: Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff [email protected], Dr. Darshana Patel [email protected], TJ Zane [email protected]
Lift Your Voices!
Adequate funding and quality of education depends on you. Many parts of our society are clamoring for a limited amount of resources. Our Board of Education, state Assemblymen and Senators, and our national Representatives and Senators are under constant pressure from countless interests. Let our voices be as strong or stronger than theirs! RBHS Friends of the Library (FOL) advocates not only for school libraries, but also for education in general. This column will present the issues on education that concern us most. You can help all of the kids in PUSD by reviewing these issues and contacting your representatives when appropriate.
Dick Mason’s Hot Topics: Library Staffing
More than 1,200 students a day use the RBHS Library–attending classes in research and evaluation of sources, using the computers, checking out the latest books, and reading the latest magazines and newspapers. The library is open for them a half hour before school, during the day, during lunch, and a half hour after school. With as many as several hundred students at a time in the library, adequate staffing is imperative.
Since 2003, there has been a 50% reduction in staffing. FOL has raised money to pay for a library assistant part-time, but this is not enough. We have begged the school district since 2007 to restore at least one of the library assistants, to no avail.