Ashland Middle School, Ashland High School to lose in-person librarian positions 

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

Ashland Middle and Ashland High school students won’t have access to full-time, in-person librarians starting this fall, after cuts to the district’s General Fund budget made by the superintendent.

Ashland School Board members heard about concerns regarding the district’s plan to cut in-person librarians starting this fall during their April 11 regular meeting. Ashland High School’s librarian position is currently vacant following the departure of the school’s librarian and the position will remain so this fall. Ashland Middle School’s librarian position is proposed to be cut this fall as well. 

The district is engaged in a two-stage budget reduction process and Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove said the district is projected to meet stage one reduction of $2.4 million from a $40 million budget going into the 24-25 school year, representing a 6% cut.

Stage two reductions will need to occur starting next year and total approximately $2.5 million, another roughly 6% cut.  

“Much of our work is still ahead as we consider how to offer increased school options for families with staffing appropriate to our declining enrollment,” Bogdanove told Ashland.news in an email on Friday. “One of our goals in the reduction process is to focus on those resources that have the most impact on instruction and student support in the classroom. Class size makes a huge difference for kids.

“We laid off the equivalent of 11.62 full-time classified (non-teaching) staff including 17 part-time Education Assistant positions that were originally hired through ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, part of COVID-19 recovery funding) relief dollars,” Bogdanove added. “Our education assistant to student ratios are better than they were pre-COVID, but less that they were during the pandemic when intensive classroom supports were needed.”

During the April 11 board meeting, Matt Damon, who has been with the district for 24 years and now serves as library manager for three libraries in the district, shared major concerns with the district about the proposal during the school board meeting. The district already reduced his position three years ago, which impacted library instruction for about 1,000 students between all three elementary schools. 

“I think this has been a sad loss to our district and certainly a loss to students who are missing a piece of what should be essential learning,” Damon told school board members. 

“This is a more drastic cut than that was made three years ago at the elementary level,” Damon added, of the additional cuts.

A new proposal would eliminate all direct library instruction for students and would also eliminate collaboration with and lesson support for teachers, Damon said.

“What is proposed is the libraries be run by classified library staff, who already have very full job descriptions,” Damon said, “but who would now be asked to take on additional tasks they are not trained for.”

In an email to Ashland.news on Friday, Bogdanove said the district’s decisions weighed the longstanding interest in keeping class sizes small.  

“Libraries are powerful resources for students and reducing licensed librarians was not an easy choice,” he said. “We are maintaining current elementary library services, and will maintain current classified staff (Media Techs) at (Ashland) Middle and (Ashland) High.  Both middle and high (school) will have an hour of weekly oversight from a licensed librarian to help maintain collections and direct acquisitions amongst other work.” 

Last week, Damon lamented the actions by the administration in eliminating a consistent librarian presence.

“To me, this all seems woefully inadequate,” Damon said. “We live in the age of information, a time when information literacy is essential for success,” he added. “Students should be learning about books, about exploring literature, about how to do research, about trustworthy sources and about digital citizenship … from a trained librarian. I don’t believe that eliminating these positions is a wise decision for our district, which prides itself on educational excellence.”

Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove told Ashland.news the district has “pretty significant work heading into next year, totaling about $2.4 million in reductions.”

“We were able to do most of that without layoffs for the teacher side,” he said. “We have laid off about 17 staff on the classified side.”

“We’re just getting smaller and had to make some decisions,” Bogdanove added. “We’ve just been through several months of process and decision-making and there are tough choices.”

When asked about the library cuts being proposed, School Board Chair Rebecca Dyson let out a sigh before making her comments.

“They are truly the heart and soul of our schools, and so I find it very distressing that this is the path we are being forced to take right now,” Dyson said. “My hope is that this is sort of a temporary course correction and that when we are on more stable footing, we can hopefully build back some of that staffing … there’s not going to be a lot that we as a board can do about it.

“Most of these decisions have essentially been made, whether or not we’re happy with them,” she added.

Reach Ashland.news staff reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].