Glen Ridge parents are speaking about against a plan to cut the high school librarian position, known as a certified library media specialist, at Glen Ridge High School.
A petition, shared with Superintendent Phillips, Board President Ginsburg, and the entire School Board on behalf of a group of concerned parents and neighbors in Glen Ridge School District, states:
The school district in Glen Ridge New Jersey is about to make a bad decision for their students, families, and town. The school board is considering eliminating the High School Librarian in the 2021-2022 budget. This follows their cuts to the Middle School librarian position and would create an “information literacy gap” from Third Grade until College for Glen Ridge students. Without a certified school librarian at the High School, the district’s important QSAC Score, the state measure of school quality, would also drop. This is a bad policy decision and needs to be reconsidered.
Parents and educators both echoed these sentiments during Monday’s Board of Education meeting.
Representatives from the Social Studies and English departments at the high school spoke of how students rely on the library media specialist and that the elimination of this position would affect quality of instruction and adversely affect students who are ahead of their peers in terms of learning proper research and citation skills.
The petition, hosted by EveryLibrary, is part of the Save School Librarians advocacy effort focused on bringing more school librarians back to schools and expanding funding equitably across schools and districts.
I hope the school families and residents in town are all aware of this. It’s a short sighted move that will negatively affect students & staff.