Bernie,
I used to work for OUSD and I originally furnished a lot of stats to the
board during advocacy work last year, includnig this one.
Here is a link to the California library stats - we continually rank among
the bottom, for public schools, and that is tied to state funding:
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/lb/schoollibrstats08.asp
Pertinent to both public and private, here is a link to 60 national studies
that have directly tied qualified library staff to things like increased
literacy scores and closing the achievement gap:
https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/librarystandards.pdf
Incidentally, OUSD is still at risk of losing all of the librarians/school
libraries that are not PTA funded. If you would like to email the board and
encourage them to NOT change the measure g funding and maintain school
libraries. If anyone would like a template of an email to send and the
email addresses for superintendent and board, please let me know. This
problem is getting pretty much buried under all the news about the strike.
Best,
Andrea Kneeland
*Library Media Specialist*
4660 Harbord Drive, Oakland, CA 94618
<https://maps.google.com/?q=4660+Harbord+Drive,+Oakland,+CA+94618+(510&entry=gmail&source=g>
(510
<https://maps.google.com/?q=4660+Harbord+Drive,+Oakland,+CA+94618+(510&entry=gmail&source=g>)
450-1110 x. 122
hnhsoakland.org
Currently Reading
<https://www.goodreads.com/user/email_signature_destination/73695601?utm_medium=reading_link&utm_source=email_signature>
[image: Book Cover]
<https://www.goodreads.com/user/email_signature_destination/73695601?utm_medium=cover&utm_source=email_signature>
Visit the HNHS Library Amazon Wishlist <https://tinyurl.com/y7r87rc3>
On Tue, Feb 26, 2019 at 8:56 AM Bernie Morrissey <
Bernie.Morrissey@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This article appeared in the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago. Does anyone
have any leads on where these state and national stats about librarians
might have originated? I’ve written to the two authors, but my guess is
they will be busy with the strike for the foreseeable future and may not
have time to get back to me. Thanks for any leads anyone has.
Bernie
*Abundant needs, inadequate funds*
Newspaper February 4, 2019 | San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Author: Aimee Eng and Jody London | Page: A8 | Section: Op-Ed
757 Words | Readability: Lexile: 1200, grade level(s): 10 11-12
Oakland Unified School District has been in the headlines a lot lately, as
we navigate the challenge of bringing a high-quality school to every
neighborhood. We're working hard to tackle the tough issues that stem from
inadequate funding and are compounded by factors unique to our city.
To help improve conditions in our schools and for our students, we need to
do all we can to retain high-quality teachers. And especially with the Bay
Area's high cost of living, we want to pay all our employees more and show
them how much we value the work they do for Oakland students. In the wake
of our passing the fiscal vitality resolution last fall, we directed staff
to make significant reductions - concentrated mostly within our central
office - to allow us to offer our teachers higher pay. Staff will present
their plan, and the difficult decisions it includes, to the Board of
Education on Wednesday.
The cost of a 1 percent raise for teachers is about $1.9 million per year.
For all employees, it's about $3.5 million. And that's why we, as a
district, find ourselves at a difficult crossroads - we want to give our
staff a generous raise at the same time that we need to make significant
reductions to our budget.
How did we end up here? We have too many schools and too few kids.
Dozens of district schools are under-enrolled, and the number of charter
and district-run schools in our school district is much higher than the
state average. In our district-run schools, there are nearly 11,000 empty
seats. The cost of maintaining buildings, utilities and staff is not
sustainable.
Our schools do so much more than just educate children - the Oakland
school district provides multiple meals per day to thousands of students,
health services, after-school programming, enrichment, restorative justice
and more - all free of charge.
We serve a far higher percentage of students who have experienced major
trauma than most other school districts. That trauma, which is most often
related to poverty, breeds need. Many of our students need additional
support just to reach a place where learning is possible.
Another challenge we face is the rising costs of just about everything.
While our revenue is expected to remain flat, our costs continue to rise,
especially in transportation, special education and pensions. For example,
as a percentage of total payroll, the district's contribution to the
California Public Employees' Retirement System was 11.4 percent in the
2013-14 school year. Now, it's 18.7 percent, and it's projected to be 28.2
percent in 2023-24.
More than 80 percent of our unrestricted funds come from the state - the
majority of our budget. California is the fifth-largest economy in the
world, but it woefully underfunds public education. The state ranks in the
bottom 20 percent in spending on a per pupil basis among the 50 states.
And, if enrollment declines, so does our budget.
We know what we provide each school is not enough, and this thin
distribution of resources is something we are working to address. Think of
central services as a rubber band that must stretch to cover the entire
district - the rubber band is stretched so far right now that it's on the
verge of breaking. That's an outcome we must avoid.
For example, consider school libraries. Oakland is far from alone in
having fewer librarians per pupil than the national average. California's
ratio of students to librarians is 8,096:1, the national average is
1,109:1. It would be much easier to open and staff a library at every
school if we had fewer schools.
We enjoy great success in finding money through philanthropy and
government grants. But those funds are always restricted - they cannot be
used to offer raises because we cannot guarantee the money will be there in
the future.
The problems Oakland faces today will be the problems that far too many
California school districts will face in a few years if the state does not
step up to solve the basic problem: inadequate funding. We implore the
public to call on our elected representatives to increase the base of the
Local Control Funding. We're doing all we can here in Oakland to put more
money in our classrooms - it's time for our state to do the same.
Caption: Teachers from several Oakland schools gathered at Oakland
Technical High School on Jan. 18 to warn administrators of a possible
strike if their contract demands aren’t met.
Memo: Aimee Eng is president of the Oakland Board of Education and
represents Oakland's District Two. Jody London is vice president of the
Oakland school board and represents Oakland's District One.
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWNB&req_dat=6C48E85C4A1D4F0DB18EEA5C706EA573&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F171606D664C3BE40
Bernie Morrissey, Librarian
Pronouns: He/ him/ his
The Harker School, Middle School Campus
3800 Blackford Ave
San Jose, California 95117
408.553.0310 direct phone
408.248.2502 fax
Bernie.Morrissey@xxxxxxxxxx
http://library.harker.org/middlelibrary
