I received the following from a former librarian at Lee high
school.
The main
building at Lee (the historic building) was renovated and reopened in February
2013. It included a beautiful new media center. The media center is now
being used for a classroom. No one is staffing it--not even a
clerk. It is closed. Imagine a brand new media center closed!
Here is the
Times Union story about the renovation. http://jacksonville.com/community/riverside/2010-07-01/story/overcrowded-lee-high-school-ready-renovation-expansion
Kids can’t check out books, do research, I don’t even know
if they can stay after school to study any longer but we also wasted a lot of
money setting up a brand new media center.
This is completely true. It has a blocked off section for a classroom. No students have been able to use it so far this year.
ReplyDeleteEd Whites media center is a very dark and unloved place and has been for some time and certainly could have used the renovation dollars. But, at least the media center at Ed White was not renovated and tax payers money wasted. One would think that any challenged school that had been recently sliding on the D or C scale should have their media center opened. Nevertheless, I am dismayed at the lack of support for the local libraries, the lack of book stores, and now the cuts to the Duval district media centers. I refuse to believe that this is happening because the students and community are not using the facilities or are not checking out books. The need for libraries is greater now then it has ever been as witnessed by many teachers that have to work with students who do not read on grade level. As long as we continue to throw money down the testing hole and continue to make Pearson, and other companies like it richer, educators and the community at large can forget about the right thing being done for our children. It stopped being about our kids long time ago. It stopped being about the teacher in the class room too (you can't have student without the teacher). It's all about what the testing companies can do to strip the education system of as many dollars as possible. Can we get the real numbers spent on testing, including industry certification exams, for each of the last ten years? Taxpayers will really be surprised! Big business is laughing all the way to the bank under the guise of reforming education.
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