Students and volunteers help run Tigard-Tualatin school libraries after district cut | OregonLive.com

Students and volunteers help run Tigard-Tualatin school libraries after district cut | OregonLive.com

Students and volunteers help run Tigard-Tualatin school libraries after district cut

Published: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 11:00 AM Updated: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 11:10 AM

Kelly House, The Oregonian
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View full sizeThomas Boyd / The OregonianTristan Kelleher, middle, helps Amiee Casugay learn how to check in books as Barret Bowman, right, waits in line at the Durham Elementary School library. Many schools in the Tigard-Tualatin School District have enlisted student and community volunteers to make up for the loss of the district's 10 elementary library assistants this year. Some schools have also reduced library hours and increased the responsibilities of their full-time librarians.

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This year, fourth- and fifth-grade students at Durham Elementary will help fill a job that used to be done by an employee of the Tigard-Tualatin School District.

They'll come in before school or on recess to sharpen pencils, clean the library, organize materials -- tasks the school's library assistant, Rosemary Pasteris, used to perform as a salaried employee.

Tigard-Tualatin eliminated Pasteris' position this year, along with the district's nine other elementary media assistants. The move saved $420,000, but keeping the libraries functioning without assistants has been a challenge.

"The hard part is finding out what are some things we just really have to stop doing," Byrom Elementary Principal Rick Fraisse said.

District officials say there was little choice in the matter. If not the library assistants, something else would have been cut to deal with the district'sbudget woes.

"It just became something that was difficult for us to continue to be able to afford," Tigard-Tualatin Superintendent Rob Saxton said.

Without assistants, the elementary school librarians have taken over as both full-time teachers and library stewards. The switch hasn't been easy, said Lynn Bird, a library and computer teacher at