Utah: Ogden School District Cutting 20 Librarian Positions

Odgen, UT is located about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City.
From Fox 13 Salt Lake City:

The twenty Library Media Specialists were called to a mandatory meeting on Friday morning where they were told that their contracts won’t be renewed and their positions will no longer exist starting July 1.
According to the superintendent, Ogden School District entered the 2012-2013 school year with a $2.7 million deficit. He said they’ve avoided cutbacks in past years, but they finally have to do it this year.
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The school board still has to approve the cuts in June. If approved, the district plans to replace the positions with part-time staff working 3.5-hour shifts and have two licensed media specialists working at the district level.

From The Standard Examiner (Ogden, UT)

The change — which includes media specialists from the districts’ elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools — will save the district $930,000 per year, district officials say.
The district will retain two media specialists at the district level to oversee the rest of the staff assistants. There will be two part-time staff assistants at each school working 3 to 3.9 hours a day, allowing the district to not pay medical or retirement benefits to those employees.
[Superintendent Brad] Smith said Ogden School District is the only remaining district on the Wasatch Front to employ licensed teachers as media specialists in their libraries.

From the Salt Lake Tribune

“No one has been fired,” said Ogden’s Superintendent Brad Smith. Instead, officials met with the employees Friday to alert them to the move and encourage them to consider applying for open teaching positions, he said.

From Fox 13

Filed under: Libraries, School Libraries