HIT: Site based management

[Susan Bullis Burton <burtons@STRAUSS.UDEL.EDU>]

        On July 8, I posted a message to LM_NET subscribers asking for
information on how site based management had impacted the library media
programs in their schools.  I was delighted to receive replies from all
over the country and was able to use them in a paper I wrote for a class
at the Univ. of Delaware, " Using the Internet in Schools".  Thank you.
        Several replies requested that I post a HIT.  I am including the
text or excerpts from most of the messages that I received.  I think we
all need this information!
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Reply 1 (Kentucky)

Susan, I am in a Catholic school and have no first hand experience with
this, but I can tell you what I've heard here.  Kentucky had its public
schools restructured in 1990 with the Kentucky Educational REform
Act--KERA.  Site-based managegment is a big part of this reform.  Because
libraries are not mandated in KERA (only implied), site-based management
teams have eliminated them in some schools, or replaced librarians with
clerks.  Maybe another Kentuckian will respond with a good report, but it
is totally up to the team,  and getting rid of the library and/or library
media specialist one way to save money.  It has happened.  Times are tough
here.   (Catholic schools also do the same thing.)

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Reply 2 (Tn)

Dear Susan
I have been at a site-based school for five years.  What a joke.  We have a
school counsel but no matter what the teachers want to do, it's still left
up to the principal.  Each school is different but in my school we have
been unsuccessful.  This year we have had teachers to retire early and put
in for transfers, due to the dictatorship in our school.  From talking with
other teachers across the system they are experiencing the same problems in
their schools.  As far as my library program, I feel it is not as good as
it once was because I was more at liberty to set up my own program.  I had
speakers for special events aand programs.  No it seems that so much else
is going on that it interferes.  I guess what I'm saying is that I feel
that I don't have the freedom that i once had with my program.
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Reply 3 (Utah)

        We have been a site based district for a number of years and it
is a bit scary.  First, are your funds for books protected or can the
school just decide to spend that money elsewhere?  Ours are protected,
thank goodness.
        I will tell you of one happening a year ago and you can
decide what you think after the story.  One of the librarians came in one
day and the principal told her that they had decided to only have her
half time in the library and the other half she would be out in the
classroom teaching reading.  They were thinking of doing away with the
librarian position entirely.  Well, she nearly died.  She did tell them
that there was one problem with their plan.  She was secondary certified
with an instructional media endorsement which allowed her to work in an
elementary library.  They could not put her in a classroom because she
was n ot elementary certified.  They decided to wait one more year and
then consider again totally doing away with her job.  She has lived in
fear of the decision for the whole year.  I think that the dir. of
libraries got to the principal and talked her mostly out of it.  Anyway,
it certainly is not the best situation IMHO.
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Reply 4 (Oklahoma)

Please post your replies.   When I served on my elem. building's site budget
committee, I could explain my requests for purchases and I got additional funds
from bldg. that I otherwise would not have gotten.  We still get a "district"
allocation per student for each building; it doesn't meet the state mandate even
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Reply 5 (Texas)

The impact of site-based management in schools on the library media
program is in large part determined by how active the librarian is. It is
imperative that a librarian be included on this team. If no one will
lobby for you, then you must lobby for yourself to be a part. Otherwise,
decisions will be made which WILL impact your media center and its
programming, and you will have had no voice in the matter.
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Reply 6 (Texas)

Dear Susan,
Your question on site-based management may be a hot issue for librarians.
In Arlington, TX, we have been under this means of decision making for
several years, and it has caused great fragmentation between schools.
Also, even though all of the 50 librarians tried to be on the committee,
each librarian has only one voice, whereas, the teachers often have voted
as a block.  For our library program this has not been good.  We are
getting ready to conduct a system-wide technology fair in October to get
our voices heard concerning what is needed in all schools, not just some.
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Reply 7 (N.S.)

        Site based management may be on my school's horizon as well. Please
post a hit.
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Reply 8 (Kentucky)

I teach in Kentucky where Kera has been forced upon teachers, there are a
few good points such as
intergrated curriculum. Site base committies have proven to be of little
help.  In our school site base
members seem to have complete control of the school.  They don't have a
sharing attitude as far as the
education of the children, being everyone's responibility, in other words
it's  a power trip for those teachers.
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Reply 9(?)

Well, if you have real site-based management, the effect will be up to
you.  I know of one library in our district that now has NO budget.  All
resources are going to the classroom.  If they had the power to get rid
of her, they probably would.  I know of another where the budget has more
than doubled, she has total flexible scheduling, and the librarian is
extremely influential about what happens in school.  She always was, but
site-based has allowed her to become even more so.  This is not to say
that she doesn't have an occasional battle to fight.
Site-based management moves office politics into the arena of the
individual school in a big way.  The principal obviously will be a key
player.  The better he or she is as a decision-maker and problem-solver,
the better it will work.  If he is susceptible to flattery, a
game-player, or a manipulator, it will tear the staff apart.

The LMS should be well-aware of the curriculum and the mission of the
school.  To be effective rather than ignored, plan how you can meet the
needs of your site.
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Reply 10 (New Mexico)

I think if the media specialist is proactive SBM is fine; but if you have
a weak media spec. and a domineering SMB committee and/or principal you
have a disaster.  I am proactive and have a very supportive principal,
but I am not involved in SBM becaus4e most of their discussions are
irrelevant to media and I don't care to be involved.  However, we hve a
very strong media program in our school.   On a district level, SBM has
been hard on the media programs with a lot of inequities throughout the
distict.  It's really been my principal who has pushed for
media/technology in the other schools more than the media spec. in those
schools.  Does this all make sense?