Wake County librarians ask board for sustainable per‑pupil library funding; district data show collections aging

Librarians and students urged the Wake County Board of Education to create a sustainable, predictable funding line for school libraries, proposing a per‑pupil allocation and use of existing Fund 2 instructional-materials dollars to address aging collections.

Christine Ziccardi, librarian at Farmington Woods Elementary School, told the board that Wake County currently lacks a recommended baseline for per‑pupil spending on library materials and that many school libraries rely on principal discretion, PTA fundraising and book fairs. “Selling books to students in order to earn back a small percentage so we can purchase books to make them freely available to all is a complete contradiction to the purpose of school libraries and is not a sustainable model for funding,” Ziccardi said.

Ziccardi offered district figures from the 2022–23 school year: of 194 school libraries, 138 had collections that did not meet the district’s minimum collection age; the district-wide average copyright age across collections was 18 years. She said 98 libraries received $0 from Fund 2 and 20 received less than $1. Ziccardi proposed a modest per-pupil allotment — for example, about $10 per student annually — and asked the board to consider directing existing Fund 2 instructional-materials money to a library line item rather than requesting new funds.

Second-grade students represented by Dillard Drive Magnet Elementary librarian Cecilia Joyce also addressed the board, asking for “about $5 to $10 per student” so the school library could buy current and multilingual books.

Board members listened to the presentations; presenters asked staff to consider a plan to sustainably fund school libraries. The item was presented as public comment and information; no board vote occurred on a funding change during the meeting.