In a sometimes tearful appeal, dozens of Bridgewater and Raritan school district staff and residents begged council members Thursday to save the jobs of eight library assistants who could be cut from next year's budget.
Raritan Borough Council President Maureen Wilson also strongly urged Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District officials to substitute the eight library assistant positions for other expenses.
"There was an outpouring," Wilson said about the library assistant positions. "(Basic reading) is a life skill that we're trying to instill in a young student that will grow with them and benefit them for a lifetime. We saw (the library assistants) as a crucial position."
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L.B. teachers union faces fork in the road.
March 10, 2007. Long Beach. Members of the Teachers Association of Long Beach are choosing a new president to lead the organization, and the two candidates seeking the office present different visions for the union's future. ...TALB has become much more politically active in the last two years, spending substantial sums last year in an effort to elect three school board candidates to the Long Beach Board of Education...Union-backed board members, Barton and Ellis, have introduced proposals in board meetings to increase the number of librarians and give all teachers the option of replacing chalkboards with dry-erase boards.
Middle school librarians would be laid off in Spokane.
March 7, 2007. SPOKANE -- Facing a possible $10 million budget shortfall, officials from the Spokane Public Schools announced possible cuts on Wednesday night...Nine positions would be cut at the district's central office, middle school librarians would be laid off, and some elementary school librarians would be cut to half-time...
The district won't know exactly how much it will have to cut until the state legislature passes its budget in April. It is urging residents to contact legislators and get them to put more money towards schools.
Philly teachers' union questioning new hires
2/13/07. Philadelphia, CentreDaily.com
The teachers union is questioning why noncertified, nonunion parents were placed in jobs at new school libraries last month. (Forrest and McCall school libraries are being staffed by parent officials).
"These are clearly federation positions," said Arlene Kempin of thePhiladelphia Federation of Teachers.
Lorraine Rosenberg, one of the co-vice presidents of the Forrest Home and School Council, said she was hired as a library technical assistant through an outside grant and is not being paid by the school district.
"I don't know if the school could afford to hire a librarian," Rosenberg said. "I would be upset if it means that if they have to hire a librarian, then we have to go back to not having a library."
Shawn Crowder, a school district personnel official, said officials were just informed of the situation and are looking into it.
2/9/07. GLENDALE, BURBANK, CA. LA DailyNews.com reports: Teacher salary negotiations in both Glendale and Burbank are becoming contentious, with unions looking to reclaim raises they had forgone in years past in a year of budget windfalls. In Glendale, some 300 teachers marched through downtown Thursday as they picketed the Glendale Unified School District in pursuit of a 12.6 percent raise. The teachers, wearing florescent green T-shirts and buttons proclaiming "It's Double-Digit Time," paraded down Brand Boulevard, ending their march at district headquarters.
Union leaders said it's a fair increase after several lean years, while the GUSD countered with about a 5.1 percent jump."There's a general feeling for teachers everywhere that we've had a tough time the last five years," said Allen Freemon, president of the Glendale Teachers Association, which represents about 1,400 instructors, counselors, librarians and others."
02/06/2007. Long Beach, CA. The Press-Telegram reports: The Long Beach Board of Education called for district staff to do a study of how to fund a potential increase in the number of district librarians. Long Beach librarians told board members that many schools have too few credentialed librarians. Many elementary schools do not have a credentialed librarian on campus five days a week, said Pamela Oehlman, a librarian at Jackie Robinson K-8 school. "Our children deserve more," she said. Board member Mary Stanton said that she supported having more librarians but wanted to study how to provide them in a fiscally sound manner. The district is projected to lose money over the next few years due to an expected decline in enrollment, she said.
Instead of using federal funds to pay for half of the costs of the middle- and K-8 librarians, the district will now use state grant funds, the board decided.
Feb.2, 2007. Anchorage,ALASKA. Members of Alaska's main public education union, NEA-Alaska, are gathering tonight in Anchorage for a three-day summit. More than 400 teachers, school nurses, librarians and education support professionals such as school secretaries, maintenance workers, cafeteria workers, and custodians will gather for the 51st Annual Delegate Assembly.Unions demonstrate solidarity to all workers and high on the priority list for NEA-Alaska is a "living wage for education support professionals."
As of December 16, 2006 as reported in El Defensor Chieftain employees of Socorro Consolidated Schools -- INCLUDING LIBRARIANS--now have collective bargaining power with the school district organized with the AFT.