WILMINGTON, MA — For the 2016-2017 school year, the Wilmington Middle School is without a school librarian. And that fact is not sitting well with at least a couple of members of the Wilmington School Committee.
“The Middle School librarian position was ‘excessed’ last spring,” explained Library Coordinator Heather Peachey in a presentation to the School Committee at their meeting last Wednesday night. “Currently, the Middle School is being staffed by parent volunteers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday… The library curriculum is being taught by the Technology Integration Specialist.”
“Not having the librarian has impacted our program,” admitted Peachey. “There’s a definite hole at the Middle School level now and a gap in some of our services. It’s too bad.”
Technology Director Anne-Marie Fiore explained that the library position was not filled in the FY17 budget in order to provide new staffing for a student support center to help students with their social emotional skills.
“In the FY18 budget cycle, we’re going to make every effort to restore the library position,” assured Fiore, who also pointed out that it has understandably been difficult for the Technology Integration Specialist to fulfill two roles — her assigned role and the additional role of teaching the library curriculum.
“I’m horrified with what happened at the Middle School with the library,” said School Committee member Peggy Kane. “I totally support putting a librarian back in the school. Without a doubt.”
“The kids in elementary schools have such a love for reading,” added Kane. “We don’t want to lose that enthusiasm for reading in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades.”
“I’m going to echo Peggy’s comments about the Middle School librarian,” School Committee member Steve Bjork later chimed in. “It will certainly be one of my top priorities to see [that position] reinstated.”
In addition to filling the Middle School librarian position, Peachey and her team has recently put together several long-term goals for the school system’s libraries:
- Broaden and update all library collections to include a variety of formats that support teaching and learning, and reflect the requirements of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, the Wilmington curriculum, and the Strategic Plan.
- Consolidate individual school budgets into one library budget.
- Reinstate the kindergarten library position.
- Extend library hours at the high school level.
- Continue to work on developing Stage 2 & Stage 3 of the preK-5 library curriculum
- Develop Stage 1 of the Middle School & High School library curriculum
- Continue to maintain and develop partnerships with community resources and organizations
Watch the presentation, courtesy of Wilmington Community Television, below. The discussion of the school libraries begins at the 32:05 mark:
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I sincerely am not the grammar police, but for a school article, please spell “lose” correctly. My kids all went through the Middle school, I truly don’t see a real need for a librarian, the kids weren’t allowed to take books out, so there really is no “loss of reading enthusiasm”, unless things have changed. We have a good town library to meet any school needs related to reports or research.