Finding alternative solutions is challenging because the district's budget is already tight. Superintendent Paul Vicinis shed light on these financial constraints, noting that "85% of the budget goes straight to salaries and benefits for our staff... everything else within the budget, which is a fairly minor amount, are generally fixed costs."
Yet, these priorities come with trade-offs: "The last time we had two full-time librarians at the high school, one for Conard, one for Hall, was back in 2021. And previous to that, for a number of years, we had four," Vicinis says.
He goes on, "We want our libraries to be inviting, places where you can peruse books, get lost in the academic feel, and have an interest.” However, with the current staffing shortages, the library's primary function is often derailed, transforming it into little more than a holding area for unsupervised students.
