BY DAN NEWMAN
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN — Over the past three weeks, a new teachers’ contract was signed, the school budget passed for a fourth consecutive year and three new school board members were elected.
Then the honeymoon ended.
On April 26, residents and teachers wanted answers as to why five out of six school librarians in the district were being cut out of next year’s budget, leaving only one to handle the workload of all 12 of the elementary schools.
While board President Joan Minnuies said that township residents should have known about the cuts prior to the budget being passed, others seemed to be in the dark about the cuts.
“I don’t think it was listed, that librarians would be eliminated, except for one,” Middletown Township Education Associa-tion President Diane Swaim said. “I’m very disappointed to hear about this, and I hope the librarians will not be left hanging.”
Rob Alvarez, a parent of a first-grader at the Harmony School, also said he was not informed the potential change.
“I had no idea this was happening with the librarians,” Alvarez said. “I now have to wonder how many people knew all of this was happening.”
Despite the concerns within the community, Minnuies said that the board plans on standing firm.
“We’re going forward with our plan,” Minnuies said. “We will have [until] the end of next year to re-evaluate it.”
According to Susan Browne, a librarian at Navesink and Nutswamp elementary schools since 2002, there were books dating back to before some of her students’ parents may have been born.
“I saw books from 1968 about Richard Nixon,” Browne said. “[I] and the other librarians worked very hard to update the books for the kids. We’ve sown a lot of seeds and we’d like a chance to harvest them.”
Teachers in the schools who will be affected also came out in support of those who will be affected by the cuts.
Karen Stuppi, a media specialist at Harmony and Port Monmouth schools, is one of the five who will be removed from her position.
“She has organized and computerized our libraries and has taught the children the necessary skills to find information,” Harmony School music teacher Roberta Kilduff said. “I hope that you will rethink this devastating cut. If the library program is left to one media specialist, I fear that all that has been accomplished will fall to pieces.”
Superintendent Dr. David L. Witmer also commented on the future of those who will be lost.
“The five people are valuable to our district, but our staff had to be reshuffled,” Witmer said. “There is always the chance that we can change things back for 2006-07.”