Woodbridge School Board Fires Librarians, Parents Fight Back

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — On Thursday night, the Woodbridge Board of Education unanimously approved the 2017/2018 school board budget, giving their approval to a proposal from the superintendent to fire two of the three remaining librarians in the school district.

There are currently only three staff librarians left in the Woodbridge school district, and they are at each of the three high schools, Colonia, JFK and Woodbridge High. Starting this fall, two of those librarians will be gone and the remaining will serve as a "traveling librarian," and travel between the three schools. The librarian with the most seniority gets to remain. As he told Patch in this article, it's all part of a plan by superintendent Dr. Robert Zega to dramatically re-fashion how the district's libraries are being used.

About 15 parents and residents attended Woodbridge's Tuesday night Board of Ed. meeting, causing one Board member to remark that she'd never seen the room so packed.

"I am deeply dismayed and disappointed," said Doug Baldwin, a Sewaren resident and parent of a current Woodbridge student. "Our children deserve modern school library services. These are all critical skills for tomorrow's informed citizens and emerging workforce. It would be a disservice to my daughter, and all the students of Woodbridge to eliminate our last media specialists."

"Students in other Middlesex County towns such as South Brunswick, Sayreville, North Brunswick and Metuchen enjoy access to school librarians at all levels, K - 12," said Chris Carbone, director of the South Brunswick public library. Carbone is also president of the NJ Library Association and spoke at the meeting last night. He invited Woodbridge Board of Ed. members to come tour South Brunswick and East Brunswick schools, where "the school library program is flourishing."

"Woodbridge test scores are generally at or below average for the state," Carbone said. "I invite you to visit the school libraries in my town of South Brunswick, a high-achieving district with high test scores. The school library program is flourishing and the district enjoys a celebrated and award-winning partnership with the public library."

But the Woodbridge school district is not along in reducing library staff: The districts of West Orange and Millburn attempted to do the same thing this year, too, Woodbridge resident and librarian Jill D'Amico said. Angry parents stormed Board of Ed. meetings and, at least in West Orange, the proposal was tabled. The New Jersey Library Association is fighting the problem all over the state.

In Woodbridge, libraries at the elementary level were already closed back in 2008. The high school libraries were kept open, but Zega said he popped into one recently and found that only 50 books had been checked out all year.

Zega said students are simply not reading the books in the library, much less checking them out, and he thinks the spaces would be better suited as technology centers, akin to the Apple store. He promised libraries will be well-stocked with computers and tablets and kids can sit around in couches or at tables, researching projects or working collaboratively.

Woodbridge parents — and librarians — aren't buying it.

"Yes, a lot of that information is available online, but how do you wade through it? How do you know what's accurate and what's not? How do you know what's reputable and what's fake news?" asked D'Amico, whose daughter will enter first grade in Woodbridge public schools in the fall.

"You can't have a Genius Bar without geniuses," she said.

Recent Patch reporting: Woodbridge Schools Eliminating Librarians in Library Overhaul, Superintendent Says