Post 2: 85 Teacher-Librarians laid off-Los Angeles Unified School District

2 of 3 posts...

More from Kathleen Sheppard, Taft High School:

“…As a class code of dually credentialed teachers we believe
that the intent is to close the libraries. And eliminate us. Our
layoffs hit teacher librarians who have worked for the district for 22
years. That's much greater we believe than other district teachers.
Last year both MS [middle school] and HS [high school] were possibly going to get RIF. Though negotiations, the district funded Teacher Librarians at the high
schools but not middle schools. Most middle schools were able to
"purchase" their teacher librarian. 13 middle school libraries are
closed now. I believe this is a civil rights issue. We have a meeting
with an attorney at UTLA tomorrow. The "recency clause" is also a
district attempt to render us as NOT suitable to teach in our first
credential. As of today, 85 will not have a job after June 30. We were
told that we could sub. Ed Code and our contracts specify that Teacher
Librarians are the only teacher qualified to teach in the library
classroom. The district is already violating that Ed Code too.

Strong school libraries = greater student achievement.

Yes, share and circulate the ignorance in this thinking by the
district.
It's about our students,

Best,

Kathleen”

Kathleen Sheppard
Teacher Librarian
Taft High School
5461 Winnetka Avenue
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
krsheppard814@gmail.com