Letter to the Editor: Allocate LAUSD Funds for School Librarians

Leyla Arenas sent a version of this letter to the LAUSD Board

My name is Leyla Arenas, and I am a PTA member at and a parent representative for Head Start at SMMUSD. I am honored to be in a position to help maintain communication between the parents and staff in an effort to increase student achievement.

First of all, I would like to commend you all on your efforts to provide a quality education to the students of the LAUSD with extremely insufficient funding from our state.

 I am in shock to find out that my 5-year-old, who is starting kindergarten through LAUSD will not have a librarian at his elementary School. He used to go to Preschool at SMMUSD, a school district that really is making the impossible possible to keep the teachers and other resources to help schools in that area.  

I can't believe that Los Angeles does not care about children's education. How can we encourage and motivate our kids to read when their library is closed? It is not fair that our kids have to suffer for the wrongdoings of many politicians and authorities in LAUSD. We have no nurse, no computer lab teacher, no teacher’s assistant and no librarian. The kids are unsupervised during recess and lunch hours because of lack of personnel. What else are you taking from us?

We are in what many consider the most challenging of times in the LAUSD and there are so many important programs competing for the limited resources within our district. Today I am writing on behalf of our school librarians who I feel have been underrepresented.  

Unfortunately many people fail to recognize that school librarians are important instructional partners. They help to develop and support the curriculum by using the library’s resources to expand on the learning opportunities outside the classroom.

By providing opportunities to read stories and explore information that matter to the students, school libraries also help to instill a love of reading and a desire for learning in all students.  This is especially critical in the elementary years and for the disadvantaged students who may not have any literacy support in the home.

In this day of standardized testing it is also important to note that 16 different state studies have documented the positive impact that properly staffed and equipped school libraries have on student test scores and grades.

Like so many other programs, I believe it should be the state’s responsibility to ensure that all public school libraries are adequately staffed and funded.  While parents across California are advocating for this, the current California Education Code (Section18100) does state that the governing board of each school district shall provide school library services for the pupils and teachers of the district.

Therefore, I implore you to look again at the LAUSD budget for areas of funding that might be better utilized if allocated to our librarians. 

Thank you for your careful and thoughtful attention to this deeply important effort to adequately fund our school librarians.  

Kind regards,

Leyla Arenas

Grand View PTA Member

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