Board debates librarian, academic‑support and robotics funding as tough choices loom

Board members examined several personnel and program funding requests amid pressure to reduce the budget gap.

Librarian request: Andrea and other board members argued that Memorial’s librarian — currently four days per week — performs critical non‑instructional duties (collection management, circulation and teacher collaboration) and that increasing the position to 0.8 or full‑time would address equity between elementary schools. Some members said they sympathize but voted not to add the librarian hours in this budget cycle, asking staff to re‑examine the need and return with options.

Academic support and FACS: Staff and principals proposed replacing a departing certified academic support teacher at McKelvey with a paraprofessional to reduce cost. Staff estimated the net savings at about half the teacher FTE cost (presented as a roughly 0.62 vs 1.2 FTE salary ballpark), and recommended a trial approach because the current certified teacher is leaving. Board signaled support to try replacing the departing academic support teacher with a para, subject to building principal rubric and further data.

Robotics and co‑curricular fees: Board discussed a $10,000 request for FIRST robotics membership fees (raising that line to $20,000). Several members argued boosters should cover extracurricular membership/competition costs and that the district already funds other program fees (DECA, Model UN); others raised equity concerns about supporting some activities and not others. The working direction was to push the robotics request back to boosters or seek offsets elsewhere in the budget for now.

Outcome and next steps: The board did not approve new recurring personnel lines at this meeting. Members asked staff to prepare two budget views for Jan. 15 (with and without the library position) and to provide data on how staffing changes would affect student access and class rotations.