SCHOOL LIBRARIES NEED YOUR HELP - WRITE NOW!
BY BOB THORPE | BOULEVARD SENTINEL / EAGLE ROCK-NORTHEAST LOS ANGELES NEWS | HTTP://BIT.LY/N8YYII
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July 2011 - The above picture is of the protest held June 14, 2011 at the LAUSD offices downtown, in support of the libraries impacted by the school board cutbacks. Librarians and Library Aides (librarians who do not hold teaching credentials) are being eliminated from many of the Los Angeles Unified School District Elementary Schools. In the wake of the budget crisis, children are being left with little or no access to books they need, and schools are forced to cancel many important programs that introduce children to books and help them to learn to read aloud.
What this has meant for our local schools included temporarily shuttering the library at Mount Washington Elementary, reducing the hours at Delevan to three hours a day, and staffing other schools with volunteers, which is actually illegal. One school alone suffered the loss of over 600 books because volunteers and untrained staff lost track of who had the books – they weren't stolen, they are just missing, and worth $18,000.00.
The problem started last November, when the Library Aides first were given notice that their positions were