Baltimore County school librarians will still pull double duty as teachers next year

School librarians thought they were finally getting the relief they’d begged for when Baltimore County’s school board in February approved funding to ease their workloads. But the victory was short-lived.

At a school board meeting last week, Chair Jane Lichter said the plan didn’t make it past budget negotiations with the county executive. That means middle and high school librarians must continue pulling double duty as classroom teachers next school year.

Baltimore County school officials have cut hundreds of jobs over the last few school years, in part to afford raises for about 20,000 union employees. To fill the gap, school librarians were enlisted to teach two classes beginning this school year. That’s left libraries understaffed for portions of the school day when students or classes might come in for help with research for their assignments.

Board members attempted to fix the problem for the 2026-27 school year by adding 36 teachers to the budget, which would have allowed librarians to drop their extra duties.

County Executive Kathy Klausmeier announced last month that she’s giving the schools an extra $9.3 million. That restores about 140 school jobs, with 93 being in elementary, 38 in middle and 10 high school assistant principals. Lichter said she regrets that the librarian funding wasn’t included.

Both Lichter and Superintendent Myriam Rogers said during the meeting that they appreciated the extra funds from the county. Rogers noted that the county contributed $45 million, or 4.5% more than what was given last year. But “priorities had to be decided,” she said.

Librarian schedules are supposed to be flexible, said Donald Whitby, a school librarian for 25 years, at the Tuesday meeting. The American Association of School Librarians recommends that flexibility since library staff are “responsive to the learning community’s needs” and provide “equitable and flexible access to the school library’s learning resources and spaces.” Classes often schedule time to work inside school libraries, which might not happen as often if the librarian is teaching in another room.

Having librarians double as teachers “is not sustainable for the system to deal with staffing shortages,” Whitby said. “And it creates inequitable access to library services in our secondary schools for our students and teachers.”

Klausmeier said in a statement that budget decisions “require balancing a variety of needs while staying focused on the priorities identified by school system leadership.” On top of the $9.3 million, she’s giving another $5.5 million to help school staff with rising heath insurance costs.

“Without that support, some of the $9.3 million for classroom staffing could have been diverted simply to cover those costs, rather than going directly to students and classrooms,” she said in a statement.

Meanwhile, teachers are still unhappy with the other jobs that have been cut from the Baltimore County school budget. The Teachers Association of Baltimore County, the district’s teachers union, said in a Monday news release that its members had signed a letter, along with groups like the League of Women Voters and Baltimore County PTA, calling on Klausmeier to restore 400 jobs.

“This broad coalition of Baltimore County organizations and activists knows how critical staffing is for a quality education and further knows that when the students of Baltimore County have a world-class school system, the entire county will thrive,” the release stated.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.