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Spring Branch Independent School District will not employ librarians at any of its campuses beginning in the 2024-25 school year, a district spokesperson confirmed Tuesday after several days of uncertainty about their fate.
Instead, lesser-trained “media center assistants” will keep libraries running for the district’s nearly 34,000 students. The changes come as the district completes its $35 million districtwide budget slash.
Job postings on Spring Branch’s website show that the assistants, who only need a high school diploma, won’t need to possess the same experience as the district’s trained librarians, all of whom had college degrees. The assistants will, however, perform many similar duties, such as handling book check-outs and helping students find materials.
Libraries will now function as “campus media centers,” district spokesperson Linda Buchman said. She did not detail what changes this entails beyond replacing librarians.
District leaders announced last week that librarian positions would be part of the latest job cuts, but Spring Branch officials did not detail whether all librarians would lose their jobs. The district employed about 35 librarians who made annual salaries ranging from about $65,000 to $82,000 in 2022-23, the most recent year with state data.
Texas public school districts did not receive a significant funding increase during the 2023 legislative session, despite the state sitting on a $33 billion surplus entering the session.
Many Democrats and some Republicans in the Legislature proposed directing a sizable chunk of the surplus to districts. However, most Republicans wanted to tie public school funding increases to the passage of a voucher program, which would allow thousands of families to use state funds to pay for private school tuition. Republicans in the Texas House ultimately did not reach a deal, leaving the surplus largely untapped.
related to Spring Branch
Spring Branch ISD to cut 215 jobs, including librarians, central office staff in budget slash
by Miranda Dunlap / Staff Writer
Leigh Anne Bryant, who has two children at Terrace Elementary School, described their campus librarian as a “magical, real-life Ms. Frizzle.” She was brought to tears when she discovered the employee who helped her 8-year-old daughter begin a school newspaper would be cut.
“This is a whole different level of disastrous decision-making,” Bryant said. “I do understand that $35 million has to be cut. But I’m extremely disappointed in our state’s inability to fund public education. … This is eroding public school and I don’t know if we could ever recover.”
Spring Branch’s months-long process of presenting major budget cuts for the 2024-25 school year came to a close last week. Since October, district leaders have trimmed roughly 300 jobs, voted to close several majority-Hispanic schools and made various changes to how campuses will operate, among other changes.
The cuts came after trustees and Superintendent Jennifer Blaine insisted they had run out of time while waiting for Texas lawmakers to increase funding to public schools as districts face inflationary pressures.
Last summer, Houston ISD superintendent Mike Miles announced he would eliminate librarians at dozens of schools he targeted for major overhaul, instead using an “honor system” for students to take home books without a staff member checking them out. Many community members and some HISD employees criticized the move, which also involved converting parts of libraries into areas for misbehaving students and kids to work individually.
Spring Branch had an early and vocal start to addressing its budget woes, but it’s not alone.
Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District — the Houston area’s second-largest district and a Spring Branch neighbor — is anticipating a roughly $38 million budget shortfall next year, district leaders said at a board meeting last week. Chief Financial Officer Karen Smith also pointed to inflation and lack of state funding as reasons why the district likely will have to soon make difficult budget cuts.
Update, 10:30 a.m., Feb. 21: This article has been updated to include additional information about the 2023 Texas legislative session and Spring Branch librarian salaries.
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