California Teens Use Facebook to Save School Library
By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 3/23/2010
High school students in California’s Tracy Unified School District have launched aFacebook fan site, hoping to drum up support for their librarians as the school board considers laying off staff.
‘Save the Tracy Unified School District Libraries’ may not sway school board members, but its 526 fans are still hopeful that other cuts may replace those made to their Northern California school libraries.
“Of all things to cut from a school, they chose a LIBRARY,” says Alina Armour on the Facebook page, and who is herself a student at Merrill F. West High School, where its school librarian is on a list to be cut. “It's ridiculous, so show the district that we want our libraries!”
Attempts to reach Armour were unsuccessful.
At its February 23 meeting, Tracy Unified School District’s Board of Educationproposed cutting 42 principals, assistant principals, and other staffer, including Donna Sonnenburg, Merrill F. West High School’s librarian. The district needs to cut $13.9 million from its 2010-2011 budget and an additional $2.1 million for the 2011-2012 budget.
However, Bill Swenson, president of the board of education, says no specific budget reductions have been approved, as of yet, for the 2010-2011 school year. “The final decision will be made March 30th at a special school board meeting,” he says by email.