by Tony Gray
posted 11 November 2021

WHITEHALL, NEW YORK -- It's been years since Whitehall High School has had a librarian but teachers and library aides made sure it remained a resource for students and a quiet place for independent reading and research.

Last year, flooding destroyed all library reading material but covid and flood repairs kept students from the school most of the year. Maybe it wasn't missed. This year, the library is being repurposed as an instructional space because of a need for classrooms in order to comply with mandated social distancing requirements for students. Maybe it won't be missed this year, either.

After all, what is a library without books and a librarian?

Superintendent of Schools Patrick Dee Wednesday said the high school librarian position has not been filled because no certified candidates have applied. The Library Aide retired this year, Dee said, adding the district did not fill that position because the library is in flux.

"There has not been a librarian here for the six years I've been in district," Dee said. "I have had certified teachers in the position yearly, but have been unable to find a certified librarian."

New York State requires high schools (but not elementary schools) be staffed by certified library media specialists, or "library teachers."

"A certified librarian is someone who's been certified both as a librarian and as a teacher," explained Nira Psaltos, a librarian at Bayside HS in Queens.

According to information published by the American Federation of Teachers, library teachers are trained to help students build information and digital literacy skills they need to conduct research and gather information, especially on the Internet.

Children learning to read also need access to meaningful and personally interesting books, according to the study: Scholastic's Classroom Libraries Work: Research and Results.

After last August's flood, both the high school and elementary school had standing water in all rooms, ranging from a few inches to a few feet. Dee told Board of Education members at a meeting last year that the district had $32 million worth of insurance coverage with their carrier, New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal. So, even though district officials estimated recovering from the backed up sewage would cost millions, they expected the insurer to make the district whole. That has not yet happened.

Despite forwarding engineering reports to the insurance company that said school damage was a direct result of the rainstorms, NYSIR was reportedly slow to respond. After more than a month of relative silence, the insurance company claimed the schools were damaged by flooding, which was not a covered loss, rather than backup of sewer and sanitary drain systems, which is covered. The district's insurance company denied much of the district's claim based on that exclusion.

Time passed but money did not, so frustration grew. Eventually, the district's insurer agreed to pay some money but what they offered was less than the cost of repairs so the district began searching for an attorney.

"The district is in litigation with NYSIR to recoup damages related to the storm, so I am unable to share too many specifics at this time," Dee said recently. "However, I can share that NYSIR has paid the district $1.5M which went primarily to mitigation work."

The Board of Education has since approved retaining the service of Washington, D.C. law firm Weisbrod, Matteis & Copley to get more money from NYSIR.

The lawyers will not receive payment from the district unless they recover money for the district beyond the amount that NYSIR has already agreed to pay, Dee told board members at a meeting last year.

At the October 2021 meeting, Dee told Board of Education members that New York State Commissioner of Education Betty Rosa had toured the school October 14, meeting with a number of faculty and students while she was here. The superintendent said Commissioner Rosa and he have communicated frequently since flooding damaged the schools and she was interested to inspect the restorations that had been done.

"We also talked to her about the loss of all our reading material in the High School Library," Dee told trustees. "She is going to be working with her connections to see what she can do to get us funding to replace our High School Library."

The state DOE oversees more than 700 New York schools that provide instruction to about 3.2 million students. The commissioner also has oversight for 7,000 librarians and 900 museums across the state, in addition to the many professional licenses her department administers.

A department spokeswoman said Commissioner Rosa was extremely impressed by her time with the students during her visit last month and was pleased to see the progress the school district made recovering from the devastating flooding.

"Although the Department does not have emergency funding appropriations available to support districts in this situation, Commissioner Rosa is committed to assisting the district in securing resources as they continue to recover from the flooding," said DOE Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Emily DeSantis. "Department staff has made the district aware of additional opportunities to secure funding for replacement books for the school's library, including the over $3.7M in CRRSA and ARP funding the district received that could be used for this purpose."

"I am hopeful that the Commissioner's office will come through with funding relief for replacement," Dee said earlier this month. "If not, we will use local funding to replace our collection because CARES funding has been allocated to learning loss as well as infrastructure upgrades."