Last spring, Lisa Olson stood beaming onstage at the Salem Convention Center. For more than seven years, she had run the library at Chapman Hill Elementary School in West Salem. Now, she was one of a dozen educators honored with a Crystal Apple award, a coveted honor recognizing outstanding local educators. A colleague said in nominating Olson that her passion for literature and storytelling fostered a “lifelong love of reading and learning.” Less than a month later, Olson left her beloved job for a local private school. She described it as an agonizing decision but said she couldn’t manage another year of growing workload with little or no time to do what she loved about the job – help kids develop a love of books. “I feel like as a district we have said, ‘Reading’s not important,’” she said. Lisa Olson, Chapman Hill Elementary, holds her Crystal Apple award on stage with Andrea Castañeda, Salem-Keizer Schools superintendent and other members of the Salem-Keizer School Board at the Salem Convention Center on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (Laura Tesler/Special to Salem Reporter) Many of the 42 workers who manage elementary school libraries in the Salem-Keizer School District said they’re frustrated that their jobs have been reduced this school year to little more than babysitting. The number of classes that library workers supervise doubled in some elementary schools this year to accommodate an increase in prep time for teachers. “I am in charge of supervising almost 600 students twice a week in what has turned into Chromebook time and makerspaces,” Jillian Torassa, who runs the Keizer Elementary School library, testified to the Salem-Keizer School Board on Dec. 10. “We don’t have time to talk about other cultures. We don’t have time to talk about creativity. We don’t have time to talk about books.” Current and former workers have spoken at multiple school board meetings about their concerns this year. They said they’re seeking updated job descriptions and pay that reflects the work they do, along with dedicated time to maintain school libraries. The workers, called library media assistants, are not librarians or licensed teachers.  The school district used to employ librarians in its schools, but laid most of them off as part of a round of budget cuts in 2011. Now, only high schools have librarians. Libraries at elementary and middle schools are managed by assistants – classified employees who earn between $32,700 and $ 41,800 per year. “They really are librarians and they’re not being recognized for that,” said Edie Buchanan, president of the Association of Salem-Keizer Education Support Professionals, the union for the district’s classified workers. Because the assistants aren’t teachers, on paper they’re not supposed to plan lessons or curriculum. But many do, leading presentations about library research, the differences between fiction and nonfiction or spotlighting authors and cultures.  Unlike other school assistants, who work under the direction of teachers who script lessons, library workers are typically on their own. Jillian Torassa, library media assistant at Keizer Elementary School, testifies about her workload at a Dec. 10, 2024, meeting of the Salem-Keizer School Board. (Screenshot) Many said they took the job because they wanted to teach kids about reading and books. “I was really really excited because this is my dream job. I love to read, I love to write, I love kids,” Torassa said in an interview. She began running the Keizer library about three years ago. But this year, she said the elements of the job she loves are mostly gone. Last spring, the district’s teachers signed a new contract guaranteeing elementary school teachers an additional half hour of preparation time each week to plan lessons and grade work during school hours. When elementary teachers have prep time, their students go to another class like gym, music or library. Gym and music teachers have caps in their contract limiting how many classes per week they must teach. Because they’re not teachers, library assistants don’t have such a limit.  With no extra funding and few options for accommodating the extra teacher time, many elementary school principals this year assigned more classes to the library. Library workers raised concerns to the school board last May as it became clear their duties would again expand. A cut in jobs at the district office last year also now means library assistants must process and barcode new books, something district workers previously handled. And library workers are also responsible for checking out and maintaining school Chromebooks. Torassa said she’s now teaching 40 half hour long classes per week in addition to her other duties.  “I can’t do anything to prepare for any lessons,” she said. Olson left the district as planning began for this school year. She said it was clear the workload for the job was only going to get heavier. The school district continues to struggle with its literacy rates. Oregon’s most recent state tests showed just one in four Salem-Keizer third graders are reading at the level expected for their age. “If we have such low literacy rates, why is library not supported more? Why do we not say that getting books in kids’ hands is important?” Olson said. She said the low priority placed on libraries in students’ early years impacts their education into high school. “Kids don’t know how to come in and do research. They don’t know how to use a library,” she said. Olson is one of two former library media assistants who submitted a written statement to the school board last month. District leaders and the employee union convened a committee last fall to discuss the library assistant job after it became clear the schedule changes across elementary schools were negatively impacting school libraries. That group includes members of the district’s curriculum and instruction office as well as elementary directors and library media assistants, according to agendas provided to Salem Reporter. “The change this year has really thrown everybody for a little bit of a loop, and so we’re just trying to find a path forward that’s most supportive,” said Kevin Walker, one of the district’s elementary directors. Three library media assistants left the district recently, and another has moved to a high school job to work under an actual librarian, according to agendas from those meetings. In November, district leaders purchased a typing program, Typing Agent, for $7,900 so library assistants can have kids work on typing skills during library time. Walker said that was intended to alleviate workload by allowing students to self-teach. Torassa and other library workers who addressed the school board said that change has lessened work, but has also transformed library time from a place to get kids excited about books to yet more screen time. “It’s just an important part of their development to be able to disengage from a screen and have something solid in their hands,” Torassa said. “The one place they should be able to escape screens is the library.” A classroom library at Stephens Middle School on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) The group has discussed other solutions, including more clarity across the district about what’s expected of library workers and developing curriculum assistants can use so they don’t have to plan lessons. The district also this year hired a second lead library media assistant who works in the district offices to alleviate some workload, according to Erik Jespersen, director of curriculum and instruction. Walker said so far, the group has been helpful in clarifying how much time library workers need to process books and perform other duties, and gathering information about what’s important to them about their jobs. He did not name any other specific solutions being implemented. He said the issue also illustrates an insufficient level of school funding for public schools to do all that’s expected of them. “Of course, we want our library media assistants to engage meaningfully and thoughtfully with kids, and it’s concerning when they bring things up like they feel like they can’t do that anymore,” he said. “We take that stuff seriously and want to talk to them more about it and figure out a way forward.” Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241. 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