In May, the Sitka school board adopted a bare-bones budget that eliminated 16 teaching positions. As staff and families reckon with the changes, the loss of Sitka High’s librarian is hitting particularly hard.
Last year, the district had about 2.5 full-time library positions, spread out between Keet Gooshi Heen, Xóots Elementary, and Sitka High School. This year, the budget has no paid library positions. Instead, the district will be hiring what they call “media specialists and interventionists” – but exactly how many positions, and their job descriptions, remains unclear.
When the Sitka school board met on June 19, parents and community members showed up to ask the board to reconsider eliminating the Sitka High librarian position. Bridget Hitchcock, who has two school-aged children, said that a library is an essential part of the school.
“The library serves a need that isn’t always talked about,” Hitchcock said. “You know, we think about science and math, and we think about all these main core topics and the main electives. But the library I think is, in some ways, kind of the heart of the institution. And I think to pull somebody who’s so passionate about it and good at it would be a disservice to a lot of students.”
And Beth Short-Rhoads said that librarian Beau Hedrick has gone above and beyond in his role, filling gaps by providing tech support and acting as a substitute.
“He’s almost like a superhero that has all of these different things that he can do under just one salary,” Short-Rhoads said. “So it’s like paying one person to do five different jobs, and it seems like having him at the high school is is just a really good value.”
Right now the budget assumes a $500 increase in the base student allocation, or per-student funding, from the state. That could end up being a little higher – $680 per student – if Governor Dunleavy approves the increase. He vetoed an increase last year, but said in May that he was open to the increase this year. Short-Rhoads and several other community members asked that the school board consider reinstating the librarian position if that extra funding comes through.
“it’s my understanding that there may be a little tiny bit of, quote, extra money coming in if the BSA is raised to $680 versus the $500 that was budgeted, and I would ask that some of those funds are used to retain Mr. Hedrick,” she said.
In an interview with KCAW, school board president Tristan Guevin said that the board will ask for public input if more funding comes through. But, he said, it’s hard to say whether Hedrick’s position, or any others, would be reinstated in that case. He said the district has to think about other essential areas, like technology and reading intervention.
“So that’s another thing we have to consider,” he said. “Do we, you know, put back in a classroom teacher or librarian or reading specialists that we’ve seen have, you know, a significant impact on where students are in terms of their reading?”
And even with a one-time BSA increase, without a permanent funding boost from the state, he said Sitka’s schools will continue to face cuts.
In other news, the board voted to renew the school district’s food service contract, approved a six-year capital improvement plan that includes requests for funding to replace the Blatchley Middle School roof, and voted to transfer maintenance of school district buildings to the city. They postponed a vote to award the Sitka Fine Arts Camp a contract to manage the Sitka Performing Arts Center.
