Board Votes $5.3 Million to Improve School Libraries

A simple formula--books plus reading equals better readers--drove the Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday to approve a sweeping $5.3-million plan to improve school libraries during the coming year.

For starters, $4 per student will be set aside for books, and part-time aides will be hired and trained to staff the library in every elementary school that has one.

Board member Jeff Horton began highlighting the dearth of library books and school libraries earlier this year after meeting USC professor Steve Krashen, a reading and bilingual education advocate.

Horton pointed to Krashen’s review of research linking reading skills to access to library books in explaining why the expenditure is so important now, as the district focuses on student achievement.

“It’s one of those no-brainers. . . . I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it,” Horton said.

Among the studies was one Krashen co-authored this year showing broad differences in the average number of books in homes in Beverly Hills (199) and Watts (0.4). Beverly Hills also has nearly three times as many school library books and twice as many available for checkout from public libraries.

“Our students don’t have books in the home and our local public library is too far away and open too few hours,” Principal Mara Bommarito of Woodlawn Avenue Elementary in Bell told the school board. “If we don’t give them a positive library experience, they won’t have one.”

California’s investment in school libraries has historically been so low that the $2.7 million the board agreed to spend this year on library books is more than double the state’s contribution to all school districts.

Part-time library aides and five librarians to train them will cost an estimated $2.6 million more annually. Currently, fewer than a quarter of the district’s 419 elementary schools have trained staff in their libraries.

In addition, the board set a five-year goal of rebuilding the corps of teaching librarians so that there will be one for every 1,000 elementary students. And Horton asked district administrators to research the cost of equipping libraries at new schools, which typically receive no additional funding.

In other action, the board hired Hanscomb Inc. to review costs of the Belmont Learning Center, the high school being built west of downtown. The company’s contract has a ceiling of $257,770, added to the total cost of what is likely to be the nation’s most expensive high school. Hanscomb is to provide its first cost assessment of the project in 45 days.

The board also raised concerns about a proposal by Supt. Ruben Zacarias to hire an independent inspector general to monitor expenditures from Proposition BB, the $2.4-billion school bond measure, and other business, construction and consulting contracts in the district. Some board members questioned whether the oversight would duplicate existing boards and divisions, but agreed to review a more specific plan in the next month.