Here are the resonses I received with the names deleted. Thank you for
all your honest and helpful responses. Gloria
Student Book Debts Issue Info
Gloria Curdy's request on LM_NET:
> We currently have a slight controversy in our K-12 district
regarding
> book debts owed by students when they move from K-5 into our middle
> schools (6-8) or from 8th grade into high school. Our LM SIRSI
program
> tracks them automatically. Some librarians want to hold the
students
> accountable and some want to start a "fresh slate." Our state law
seems
> a little nebulous on this point. We have established a committee to
> look into this, but I need info from anyone who will share how you
> handle this problem in your district? Thank you. Gloria
Responses :
We are not networked across the district, so this is not an issue;
however, I have strong opinions in favor of accountibility. Your credit
card does not start a clean slate when you pass a certain milestone
(30th, 40th, 50th b'dy, for example). This is a real life lesson: a
debt is a debt until it's paid. "Starting a clean slate" simply teaches
the child that if he waits long enough, it won't matter any more.
Supposedly, in our system, the guidance dept. will not forward records
for students who owe debts to the current school. That includes
library, cafeteria, textbooks...whatever.
*****************
Incoming freshman are not allowed to pick up their schedules in the
fall
until they have cleared all debts with the middle school. This
includes
library fines, lunch charges, textbook damages, and other
miscellaneous
debts. This seems to work fairly well. However, there is nothing in
place at the elementary schools. I was at the middle school for 16
1/2
years and kids always started out with a clean slate in the media
center.
******************************
Our District will not hand out a student's diploma until all their
fines
are settled with the District. Books and textbooks are purchased with
taxpayers money and not collecting fines for missing books is a waste
of
the taxpayers moneys. Students and parents should be held accountable
for
the lost of public money.
We used to tell 7th graders (we are K - 7 school) that their records
would
not be passed on to the high school until all chargers were paid at
the
elementary school. This was never questioned. Then we got a wishy
washy
principal and she would not enforce it. She would not even make
teachers
accountable even though our school board policy is very clear that
teachers
are accountable for lost materials.
I am not sure what state law here in VA says.
***********************
We use Library.Solution for our circ system which also allows us to
track
books which haven't been returned from year to year and from school to
school
within the district. When we got this system several years ago it was
introduced with this feature being touted as a real plus. We were all
thrilled that we could finally have some control over the problems of
losses
by the same students who came and later left our schools or were in
and out
of one school several times during the year, and the frequent losses
all the
transience entailed. However, now, several years down the line, the
problems
of keeping those students from borrowing books when they lost one in
years
past and did not return or pay for it, are being addressed by district
lawyers, who say we have no legal grounds to deny students access-No
Matter
What their Records of Loss!!
Another issue is that of the increasing numbers of students who
have been
blocked from borrowing due to elementary school losses once they reach
middle
school and are required to complete projects using the resources of the
media
center (or middle school losses preventing their borrowing in high
school.)
I am on the board of our district's media organization, and after
we were
recently told that we could no longer legally keep students from
borrowing
books when they owed for a lost book, and had to delete these blocked
records, many of us protested that this policy is in conflict with our
district's teaching of core character traits, one of which is
RESPONSIBILITY!
The answer? Unfortunately, the lawyers don't care! We can't legally
hold
children to be responsible to the extent that they will not get a
library
book! Interesting, huh?? We were told too, that we should just chalk
up the
losses as "the cost of doing business." Stay tuned for what this policy
will
bring in years to come....
**************************************************
We start each child fresh at the beginning of each year K-6.
I am of the fresh slate variety but with a small caveat. When our kids
go from lower school - which could be from when they were 3
kindergarten
to 1rst grade and they have lost only one book, I clear their record.
Then they are in elementary school fresh and clean. When they go into
fifth grade they work off their debt at &10 an hour which usually
means
3 hours per book because we charge a flat $30 for hardcover.
I have not established or looked into this kind of situation but I
suggest you apply whatever happens with textbooks in the same
situation.
That is, are your kids supposed to return textbooks? If so, what
happens when they move from elementary to intermediate to high school
w/o returning textbooks? Are they given a clean slate? Or do they have
to pay? There is a precedent.
************************************************
We start with a fresh slate. Our theory is that we want the libraries
to be a welcoming place where children feel comfortable. Everything we
do is with that in mind. We also do not collect book fines; students
only pay if they lose a book.
--
Hi,
Many of the schools in our district have adopted to policy of
withholding
the final report card if fines are not paid for lost books. This seems
to be
very effective for the younger grades. For the middle grades, many of
the
students need their report cards if they wish to play pop warner
football or
to cheerlead- so they pay up as well. This gives us a bit of leverage
but I
am with the group that says give them a fresh start each year. Just my
two
cents!
we try to make them follow, but the program the district is using
doesn't retain that information between schools. SASI. As librarians,
we call and e-mail the files, so that the next library can have those
missing items in their system when the students start checking out. We
are pretty good at getting the items back for each other.
We also, hold report cards at the end of each grading period and the
end of the year. The high school in our district is really strict and
will assign detention for overdues, and, if a senior it can prevent them
from participating in graduation.
Students are not allowed to check out books at their new school until
they
take care of book debts from the previous school.
We hold them accountable from building to building.
We *try* to hold them accountable. Of course a lot depends on the
various LMTs and how well they do at sending the information on or
pursuing them when they enter.
All fines are transferred to the next school as students move up in
grades.
I believe this is Washington state law because that's been true in all
the
districts I know about......
In our district the debt does not follow the student,
they start with a clean slate. In fact with our low
income "at-risk" population, most debts are forgiven
at all grade levels if the students cannot pay them.
The students are asked to pay what they can, and
possibly work in the library to "pay-off" the rest
(although this can be more of a chore for me!). Since
we have so many low income families, most debts are
forgiven at the end of each year (we do spend the year
trying to recover at least partial payment). We feel
we do not want to discourage them from using the
library. We have a large ESL population and are always
encouraging them to read, the loss of a book is a
small price to pay to get them reading!
We hold them accountable.
END of Reponses
Gloria Curdy
K-12 Library Media Program Coordinator
Missoula County Public Schools
Missoula, MT
gcurdy@mcps.k12.mt.us
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