Librarians protest proposed cuts again
Arizona, USA: Mesa Public School librarians - serving Arizona's largest school district with 74,000 students - and their supporters demonstrated again Tuesday over job cuts and what they called the "dumbing down" of services for students.
Chants and placards welcomed passersby for an hour as 60 demonstrators marched before the regular school board meeting at district offices near Stapley and University drives.
Protest organizer Ann Ewbank said she and others met with board president Rich Crandall and Superintendent Debra Duvall on Monday to voice concerns about the new plan.
Ewbank said the new advocacy group, Fund Our Future Arizona, would propose alternative librarian models before the next Mesa school board meeting, May 27 .
"I'm very positive about the reception from the board and the administration," Ewbank said.
Mesa librarians and supporters first protested the cuts April 22, when they also launched a statewide petition in support of school libraries and information technology. They have gathered more than 1,200 signatures on the petition, which can be found at gopetition.com/online/18626.html.
On Tuesday, protester and parent Denise Lubbock said the new librarian aides will not be professionals and that Mesa schools will deliver "dumbed-down services to students."
"I know they have to cut back on the budget but this will affect student academics," she said.
School districts across Arizona have been reducing library services in order to balance their budgets, including Creighton Elementary, Tempe Elementary, Tempe Union High School, Paradise Valley Unified, Humboldt Unified, Tucson Unified and Grand Canyon Unified.
"The bottom line is this is a state funding issue," Ewbank said. "We want to work with legislators to dedicate funding specifically for school librarians."