Reinstate District Teacher Librarian
Motion 8 · Special Board Meeting, April 20, 2026
Summary
- Sought to reinstate the sole district-level teacher librarian position (1.0 FTE) proposed for elimination, at a cost of $140,389 from operating contingency.
- The district teacher librarian provides professional development, collection support, and coordination across all school-based teacher librarians and library technicians.
- Staff described a shift to a coordinated team-based instructional model; curriculum and assessment teachers, the Learning and Instruction Department, and two librarian technicians would absorb the coordination work.
- Supporters argued the position has district-wide indirect impact on library equity, resource consistency, and support for new teachers; its specialized skills are difficult to replicate across a team.
Vote
Public comments
Read all 1 statements
Transcript
19 segments
Thank you very much. I would move that the board amend the 2020-26-2027 draft financial plan and budget to reinstate the 1.0 FTE district teacher librarian staffing for the 2026-2027 school year and that the board approved the allocation of 140,389 from operating contingency to fund the additional 1.0 FTE teacher staffing. Is there a seconder?
Trustee Friedcoat, thank you. Trustee Ma, please motivate.
I will motivate for sure. Okay, so currently there's only one person that's working to liaise with all the elementary teachers and secondary school teacher librarians. We, at the public delegation meeting on April 15th, we heard from two delegates that spoke about the importance of our school libraries. It might be noted that out there in our district, there are many schools, elementary schools, that do not have full-time teacher librarians. Some of our schools do, which is fantastic. And we know that the board is committed to literacy. and literacy comes with being able to access libraries in our district. And when you have over a hundred and some odd sites with school libraries, and there's nobody at the board level to coordinate professional development in service, options to go and work with new teacher librarians, options to develop workshops on specific topics, for example, like indigenous education or inclusive education, or working with looking at collections, helping school teacher librarians look at collections. We need somebody at the district level to support that work. And so that's why I am moving this motion.
May I ask a question to staff? We've seen a reduction and I did some clarification on how we are planning to support without the one FTE that is mentioned in the motion.
Maureen McCray Stanger, please.
Thank you to the chair. So as part of our budget process, staffing models are reviewed to ensure that resources are being used where they have the greatest impact on our students. As part of this review, the reduction of the district teacher librarian mentor position is proposed to better align with our current instructional priorities and our budget realities. In the past few years, our learning and instruction department has shifted towards a coordinated team-based model that supports all areas of curriculum in schools. Our curriculum and assessment teachers are an essential part of the learning and instruction team. They spend the majority of their time in classrooms providing direct support to students across multiple subjects and grades, while also providing collaboration and mentorship opportunities to teachers as they work alongside them in our schools. The Learning and Instruction Department, as well as our Learning and Information Technology Department, will work collaboratively with our teacher librarians in schools to support all aspects of literacy, including digital literacy and professional development. Two librarian technician positions in the LIT Department will also continue to support teacher librarians with ongoing software and cataloging needs.
Thanks for that info.
Trustee Freedcoat.
Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Trustee Ma, for bringing this motion. I am in support of this motion. I have worked very closely with the district teacher librarians and know how much work they do behind the scene and how their position affects the librarian or the students in the school on a district level, actually. they have a very wide type of impact on schools, supporting professional learning, resources sharing, and making sure there is a consistency and equity in all the libraries. So cutting this one full-time position will have a big impact on the district and I would, I would support this motion to actually retain this librarian. Thank you.
Trustee Reddy. Thanks chair. And thanks Trustee Ma for highlighting the importance of the district teacher librarian position. I think an added piece that supports this work is how critical the support is to new teachers and staff in the district to be able to go to somebody to support them. And on the heels of continued cuts to library hours, the resources available in the library, we know from students how harmful that is when you don't have access to a library and librarians in your school community in the building. So having this support is critical, recognizing both incoming teachers and other staff, but also to make sure that students are supported across the district, knowing that there have been progressive cuts over the years to library hours and resourcing. So I do support this motion and hope that we could retain this critical role.
May I ask Maureen, just a quick question, something that Trustee Reddy just said around having access to a librarian or having someone with the resourcing at a school. Are you able to just comment on that? And as a one FTE district teacher librarian, will that affect a student who is looking for the resourcing as mentioned in their school and will they still have access to help in schools?
I thank you to the chair. Yes, so all students can access their library, excuse me, at their schools. Some schools do have teacher librarian hours attached to that. Some schools also have some other blocks they assign to library prep where teachers can be in there to support students to get books and resources that they need.
Thank you. And to clarify, so you're saying that other teachers will be trained to provide the services, there just will be one reduced FTE at a district level, but those supports will still be there?
So there's no additional training. A teacher librarian is a trained position. But in schools, schools that might not have a full-time librarian, oftentimes might use their vice principal allocation time to support prep coverage and bring students in the library to be able to exchange books.
Thank you very much for that clarification. Trustee Friedko.
I have a question and then maybe a comment after. So a district teacher librarian, how many do we have in the district right now?
We have one district position for teacher librarian. The other positions are directly in schools, in school libraries.
Okay, sorry, a follow-up. So thank you, Chair. So the one district teacher librarian position that we have is the one that we're cutting right now?
Yes.
OK.
Thank you. One more. Sorry. OK. So there is a lot of, I don't know if anybody knows, there is a lot of different type of software that the teacher librarian use in the libraries to check out the books. And there's a lot of resources that they have to collect on a regular basis to pass it to the teachers This position, if we only have one district teacher librarian and we're cutting that position, I think we're doing a very big mistake. These are very specialized, skilled teachers, and they're very critical to... the educational that we provide in the school. Cutting this position, it is gonna affect, I would say not directly, but like indirectly, it's like a triple down effect and it is gonna affect the school. I don't think cutting a position is a good choice at this moment.
Seeing no other hands up, we'll go to Closing of the motion, if you would like. No, okay. Thank you very much. We'll go to a vote. All those in favor. Trustees Ma, Reddy, Chen, and Freedcoat. Those opposed? Richardson, Chen, Pedley, Fraser, and Young. The motion is defeated. We'll move to our next motion. And I will ask Trustee Ma to read 2.2.8 agenda motion.
Statement Watch
Thank you to the chair. So as part of our budget process, staffing models are reviewed to ensure that resources are being used where they have the greatest impact on our students. As part of this review, the reduction of the district teacher librarian mentor position is proposed to better align with our current instructional priorities and our budget realities. In the past few years, our learning and instruction department has shifted towards a coordinated team-based model that supports all areas of curriculum in schools. Our curriculum and assessment teachers are an essential part of the learning and instruction team. They spend the majority of their time in classrooms providing direct support to students across multiple subjects and grades, while also providing collaboration and mentorship opportunities to teachers as they work alongside them in our schools. The Learning and Instruction Department, as well as our Learning and Information Technology Department, will work collaboratively with our teacher librarians in schools to support all aspects of literacy, including digital literacy and professional development. Two librarian technician positions in the LIT Department will also continue to support teacher librarians with ongoing software and cataloging needs.