She also hopes to get parents to volunteer in shifts. When Joseph Pennell’s library is complete, Harm will still work as reading specialist in addition to being in charge of the library. “I know I’m just a teacher, but if I didn’t do this, I knew we’d probably never be able to have a working library,” she told Billy Penn. Harm says her principal is supportive, but doesn’t have any funding to back the project. Over 500 books have been donated so far, Harm said, and every item on the wishlist has been ticked off, putting her on track to reopen the library by next academic year. She asked for advice in Facebook groups for working moms, and in January, created an Amazon wishlist of books and supplies. Harm, the at Joseph Pennell School teacher leader, started thinking last August about what it would take to rebuild the library from scratch. The district’s directory lists them as teachers, so she’d have to go on each school’s website and poke around to find out if there’s a librarian on staff. There is no professional development dedicated to librarians, School District of Philadelphia spokesperson Christina Clark confirmed.Ī scene from Abbott Elementary's 'Art Teacher' episode, filmed in the fictional school's library Liliane Lathan / ABCĭowning says it’s hard to even find out who the other remaining librarians are. “When I began in the district 39 years ago, librarians would get together and do professional development … there’s not enough time to do that anymore.” You have no one to talk to about the work you do,” said Downing. For example, she can’t request new books or resources ahead of time due to lapses in Penn Alexander’s budget. “Our library looks like most in the city,” Downing said. Though Penn Alexander is a University of Pennsylvania Partnership School, she says the funding it receives from the university doesn’t trickle down to the library. Jayne Downing has spent nearly half her 39-year tenure in the Philadelphia school district as a librarian at West Philly’s Penn Alexander School. But even schools that do have librarians on staff aren’t always well-funded or resourced. Sometimes, teachers are turned into makeshift librarians to make up for budget cuts. Others faced forced transfers and further cuts that limited what they could achieve. Of the 43 librarians working at the time, nine were laid off. In 2013, the district faced a $304 million budget deficit that forced Superintendent William Hite to cut over 3,700 positions. When school administrators didn’t have enough money to keep everyone on staff, librarians and reading specialists were among the first positions to get cut. There’s little public documentation, but sources say a big change happened in the 1990s, when the district transferred librarians’ payroll from the central budget to that of each individual school. “We just want to help people in Philadelphia understand the importance of why all students should have libraries and librarians.” Turning to crowdfunding and Amazon wishlists “‘Abbott Elementary’ could be very helpful,” said Kachel, who co-chairs the PLSA advocacy committee. The pandemic stalled progress, leaving advocates back where they started: getting people to care. To receive it, they’d have to commit to providing space for a library, a budget for books, and a plan for training. As described in the plan, schools would apply for funding from a centralized budget to retain a librarian. Tweet from February 2020, PSLA sent a proposal to City Council that would add librarians to Philly district schools over time.
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