I would schedule an appointment with the principal / superintendent together
to ask the questions about the budget. If their answers were based upon a
serious shortfall and no one spoke to you, then that's incompetence on their
part (regarding administrative abilities). As much as you'd like to scream,
just take notes and then do some investigating.
Depending upon the amount of funding you normally received, the difficulties
that the school is having at this time, the budget, and the state's revenue
at this time, you may (or may not) decide to approach the school board
regarding this issue. If there seems to be a problem across-the-board
regarding money management, I would talk with other teachers to see if
anyone else has had these problems. If so, then perhaps you can work
together as a group to face the board regarding funding mismanagement. If
it's a small school, there's a possibility that they're scrambling to stay
afloat and don't really know much about school finance. If it's a larger
school, there may be some serious issues relating to the rise in costs for
heating, maintenance, etc. However, none of this gives the administration
an excuse for not speaking with you about what they were planning to do.
If your state has guidelines for libraries (and state funding that libraries
are allowed each year), I would definitely call the state department of
education (or the agency that works with school library standards). They
should be able to help you with some professional approaches to take with
the administration / board. In addition, if any of the funding that was to
be directed to your library was based upon federal programs designed for
libraries (or perhaps technology areas), you may be able to contact the
agencies involved to find out if the school has violated the law by
diverting funds.
I was also in a similar position about 10 years ago with a federal library
grant that I wrote to supplement my meager budget. My school took my
budget (which was to be my matching funds) all of the grant funds, reduced
my budget for the upcoming year, and would not approve my grant
requisitions. I contacted the state agency that gave me the grant and they
sent a "bull dog" to basically fight my battle by telling my administration
that they had 10 business days to get the funds back into my account or face
criminal charges. The funds were there in three days. It was tough being
in the same room with the administration but it was rewarding to watch them
suddenly gulp when the legal aspects were brought into play.
Good luck with your grants. They can't touch those...but they'll try. If
they do..."sic 'em!"
~Shonda Brisco
Trinity Valley MS / US Librarian
Fort Worth, TX
sbrisco021@charter.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Valerie Bassett" <vbassett@YAHOO.COM>
To: <LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 7:50 PM
Subject: Funding help
> Hello all!
>
> I'm apologizing up front for my ramblings, but I felt
> I needed to get some advice from the best librarians
> out there!
>
> First some background...
> South Carolina, like the rest of the 50 states, has
> been experiencing financial difficulties and has
> frozen all school funds as of December 02. However, I
> was told to continue submitting orders as the money
> "would be found" to support the library. Well, since I
> have been submitting orders since January and have yet
> to receive any shipments or any notification, I called
> the companies to find out why. And, to my dismay,
> absolutely *nothing* has been ordered. So, my next
> call was to the office where I was told that my money
> has been spent elsewhere! Without my knowledge!
> They "borrowed" my funds to pay other invoices and did
> not tell me.
> Did they think I wouldn't discover this???
> I was SO furious! I am an LMS in a school that has not
> had a librarian in 6 years and serves severely
> underprivileged kids where approx. 85% of the students
> are on the National School Lunch Program. New books
> and materials have not been ordered in the meantime.
> So, that should tell you how important books are to
> these kids!
>
> I have applied for 3 grants, but will not find out the
> results until May.
>
> SO...I need some sage advice from all of you. How
> would you deal with this situation? How can I trust
> what the administrators say from now on? How can I get
> books into my students' hands?
>
> please help!!
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> A severely disillusioned LMS...
>
> Valerie
>
>
> =====
> Valerie Bassett
> media specialist
> Ridgeland Elementary School
> Ridgeland, SC
> vbassett@yahoo.com
>
> __________________________________________________
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