School library staff eliminated across Anglophone West as part of cost cuts for next year

Anglophone West is eliminating its entire library staff in schools across the district next year in response to a planned $9.26 million budget cut from the province.

Seventy district employees were handed layoff notices Monday morning, and superintendent David McTimoney singled out the library workers as the group "most notably" affected.

The number isn't clear, with the district saying 33 library workers and the union saying 26, including some who work in different schools.

But no libraries in the district will be staffed next year, said McTimoney, whose district operates 70 schools over a large area that includes Fredericton as well as small towns and rural communities.

"It's really a difficult decision," he said in an interview.

Anglophone West is making the cuts because the Department of Education asked all school districts to cut a total of $43 million from their spending plans, he said.

McTimoney has already been told the district's budget for next year will be $9.26 million less than this year. The 70 positions being cut are only the start, he said, and the district will still need to find savings.

"We have begun the work of trying to determine how we can find these $9.2 million," McTimoney said.

Elimination of library jobs would come to 6.7 per cent of the target.

An Anglophone West document provided by McTimoney says the 70 laid-off district employees also include 19 educational assistants, 10 administrative assistants, seven district administrative supports and one student attendant.

Employee worries about literacy

When she got her layoff notice, a school library worker in Hartland, thought of New Brunswick's effort to improve literacy scores and wondered how losing libraries will help.

"They talk about these benchmarks that we're not meeting and yet we're losing one of our biggest tools," said Christine Silliphant, who has worked for seven years at the Hartland Community School library. "This is the way I get kids excited about books."

Theresa McAllister, president of Local 2745 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees said 26 library workers were laid off but these people cover 33 positions. 

The decision is "wiping out" the library worker pool, according to McAllister.

"CUPE will not take it without a fight," she said. "We will push back."

Cuts up to individual districts

Not all library jobs in the province are being eliminated, Erika Jutras, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, said in an emailed statement. 

Staffing changes are being made in all school districts, she said, because of a "redirection of funds."

"Each school district will be making their respective decisions regarding staff changes."

Silliphant described the shock of getting the layoff notice.

"Today was a normal day and then my principal came in and he said, 'I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news,'" she said. "And he had a piece of paper in his hand and it was my layoff notice for the next school year."

The notice said Silliphant's hours had been reduced, so she thought she still had a job. Then she found out the hours were reduced to zero.

"I'm devastated, obviously." she said. "I love my job. I've been in that school for seven years. I love my connection with the students. I read to them all every day. It means a lot to me.

"I was upset for myself, but I was also really shocked that they think so little of the library."

She said in rural schools such as Hartland, libraries are a "big deal." Kids are excited to see Silliphant in the library every day, whether it's during recess or class time.

"It's a safe space for a lot of students and they come in there. You can sit and read. They can talk to me like it's just the centre of the school to me. It's the heart of the school. The library makes a big difference and I've talked to a lot of other [library workers] and they feel the same way."

Silliphant will have her job until June and will be able to apply for other positions within her collective bargaining agreement.

McTimoney called literacy a priority but said the district has to focus on "academic support teachers" who work within schools to improve literacy and numeracy skills.

The district now has to "reimagine what our libraries can look like so that students might still benefit."

McTimoney said there are 189 vacancies in the system available to employees like Silliphant.