It was the best of the end of the school year and the worst of the end of the school year. It was the time to celebrate student achievement and the time to report retainers. It was a time to plan for next academic year and the time to plan for summer vacation. It was the time to test, STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) and time to plan end of the year awards ceremonies. It was a time of classroom chaos (if classroom management is at a ‘bear market') and a time of jubilant connections and professional learning at the annual state library association conference. Yes, the end of the school year brings a lot of happiness, but a lot of additional stress as daily, weekly, and monthly systematic withdrawals are made from educators. Professional staff members look at the great acquisition of learning for students and are often encouraged to ignore the exchange rate when they are already exhausted and barely standing. How can they leverage the surplus of achievement they have realized?
Although National School Library Month creates some lines of credit giving librarians’ balance sheets energy to make a much needed impact, a secondary stimulating event that traditionally happens during this month is the Texas Library Association Annual Conference. Unfortunately, Fiya Librarian was not able to attend this year, but she has fond memories of a previous year she was able to. This professional development meeting is of grand measures: vendors from across the country in the exhibit hall, event sponsorships, scholarship awards donors and leadership initiatives. Often Fiya’s campus principal allowed her to go for the professional learning opportunities, but one year Fiya Librarian was not only blessed to go, she traveled with a few teachers. During the inaugural year of TLA Teacher Day, Dina, Pamela, Janie, and Tanya rode to San Antonio. It was delightful—fun, fellowship, learning, and freebies. They took a beautiful picture with authors Crystal Allen, Don Tate at the Brown Bookshelf booth in the exhibit hall; after that a copy of that picture has always been displayed in the Fiya Library. That year yielded the biggest and best dividends.
In a recent webinar, Schedules That Work: Flexible or On-the-Block, Fiya Librarian shares with librarians the need to “build equity” in your relationship with your administrator in order to have the capability to influence the ideas that are made about the library. As a librarian, one must position himself or herself to present ideas to the principal whether he or she accepts them or not. The bottom line remains that the professional librarian’s voice was stated in the situation and your factors of production are specific. Sometimes we vent to our colleagues about the decisions that are made and how those decisions affect the library, but we never once open our mouths to talk to our principal about the issue. School leaders know a lot about a lot, but they are not mind or heart readers. As the leader of the library, the librarian is the resident expert, and she must feel comfortable in her knowledge, her abilities, and her worth to speak. Passionate rhetoric is beautiful, but most principals deal with gross margins, so give them what they want. Locate the facts that work for your campus, your library, and your students and present that information to your leader.
Multiple school budget deficits due to lack of state and/or local governments disbursements negatively impacts learning is a worst of times scenario. Many school districts are forced to restructure due to lack of sustainability because the cost of educating students has increased. In the blog article, In It To Win It, Fiya discusses the crunch time district leaders are feeling and how that trickles down to the campus principal and district and/or school wide positions. Fiya is grateful for the Texas Library Association (TLA) stance on school librarians. Recently, TLA published an open letter sent to all school superintendents in the state. The letter states what professional librarians already know about their work with schools, parents, teachers, and most importantly students. It is nice to hear an organization not only say it, but write it and share it with other individuals who have decision making power. Thank you Texas Library Association for advocating for the profession that brings a wealth of knowledge to our world. Each librarian should have the advocacy spirit inside.
This school year has left some in a deficit; librarians feeling the irrefutable laws of supply and demand. Like educators there are some librarians choosing to leave the profession; the debt feels too high with very little compound interest in the bank. Fiya’s prayer for each librarian is to choose to leverage literacy. Find your negotiables. What are your flexibility points? How are you adding value to your campus? Where are your students’ learning gains? Hold that close to your heart, and remember it above all else. Then, have your non-negotiables. Know them ahead of time. Do not just go with the flow; you may end up bankrupt. You are the only one that can determine your bottom line. You can take that to the bank.
The end of the school year may feel like a string of burdensome transactions with all the cost of goods sold draining your account (and there are many, many transactions), but remember your why, not their why (there’s a difference). Who are you? What’s your purpose on that campus? How are you called to affect change? Real change–not coins. Do a qualitative analysis, and then make a reinvestment in yourself, your students, your staff. This type of accounting will yield a lifetime of retained earnings.
Lighting the way,
Fiya Librarian
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