On a Friday morning in late September, an eighth-grade class filed into the library Mount Adams Middle School shares with Harrah Elementary School.
Michelle Navarro, the assistant principal, provided guidance on how to use the library. It was Sept. 20, the day after the library's grand opening.
"Here on the side, you will see what is called the Dewey Decimal System," she said, pointing to the call number on the spine of a library book. She mentioned that each student would get a plastic bookmark, and talked about when the class would visit the library on a regular basis.
"When you're reading, you're learning. And when you are learning, you're growing," Navarro said. "These books are able to go home. We only have one title of each book, so we do have to take care of the resources we have."
Students followed along but were clearly eager to scan the offerings. As teacher Johnny Gomez looked on, they left their seats to get into the stacks. A few boys clustered around the graphic novels section, with one checking out "Black Panther." Some girls visited the mystery section. Atop the stacks, displays held books that included "Jerry C. Elliott High Eagle" by June Thiele, "Who Was Maya Angelou?" by Ellen Labrecque and "I Am My Ancestors' Wildest Dreams" by Robert Paul Jr.
The grand opening was a big deal. School board members, staff and students celebrated as Principal Gloria Widener and a student cut the ribbon stretched between two columns of balloons. A class of seventh-graders with near-perfect attendance for a week earned the opportunity to be the first students in either school to check out books.
It took 2 1/2 years after this new school building debuted to fill the grand library space near the main entrance and open it for students. School staff and others worked to secure $125,000 in grants and donations to buy new books because many books at the former school were older, outdated and likely of little interest to today's students. And there won't be a librarian to staff it due to funding issues, said Curt Guaglianone, superintendent of the Mount Adams School District.
The school district on the Yakama Reservation has almost 900 students at Harrah Elementary, White Swan Middle School and White Swan High School. Indigenous students comprise about 60% of the district's schools, with Hispanic students a significant portion of the remaining population.
"We have the most beautiful library in the south (Yakima) Valley (but) we have no way to staff it and fund it," Guaglianone said. "As administrators, these are choices we have to make."
Funding and other challenges
School districts are struggling with more demands for their dollars and decreased buying power. A report by the League of Education Voters released this past summer showed that Washington school districts increased spending on staff by 19.7% between the 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years. Inflation has impacted the cost of supplies and insurance premiums have grown substantially.
In Washington state, the school funding formula can be another challenge. Though the Legislature mainly funds schools, districts must seek voter approval for local levies, which require simple majority approval and are used more frequently for basic operational costs. District officials have to hustle even harder to get construction bonds passed; they require "super majority" approval, or 60%. It can take multiple tries to get the necessary approval.
"We are very underfunded and we have very unsustainable funding in the state of Washington," Guaglianone said. "When you take a district like ours that has increased challenges, it just exacerbates that issue."
School libraries also have been in the news in recent years because of increased challenges to books. Selah School District board members recently upheld the process of a district committee in turning down a community member's request to remove five books. Board members noted the district doesn't have librarians, and the procedures were handled by other staff members.
The Mount Adams School District is within the 1.3-million-acre Yakama Reservation. When Indian lands are held in trust by the U.S. government, that property and improvements on it are exempt from property taxes, according to the Washington Department of Revenue.
The district doesn't have any librarians, even though it is funded for 0.79 of a librarian at the elementary level, Guaglianone said.
"We need teachers. We need counselors. We need paraprofessionals," he said.
Running the library at Harrah Elementary and White Swan Middle will be a school effort, Navarro said. An electronic system is in place so teachers and others can check out books for students. "Teachers will bring students in and we will have staff that will go in at the end of the day and have them put the books back on the shelves," Guaglianone said.
Students returning books put them in a big wooden box resembling an apple bin. The box was about one-third full of returned books the day after the library's grand opening.
"We want readers. We're doing everything we can," Guaglianone said. "To us, opening a library is huge.
"Reading is a gateway to life. It opens up doors and windows."
Space challenges
The library shared by Camas and Satus elementary schools in Wapato was so tight on shelf space in January, librarian Jenna Floren was prioritizing what could be removed from display. As district officials were leading a tour to show why a new combined elementary school building was needed, she was going through boxes of new Spanish language books. To put out new books, she'd have to store some older books.
The Wapato School District saw its construction bond proposal secure super majority approval from voters in February 2024, on the first try. Design work on the new elementary school isn't scheduled to start until next year, but district officials have said the new elementary school would include a library.
Though the current elementary library is in a separate building, it shares space with the Welcome Preschool. Libraries sharing space is another reality for many schools. Some have begun using portable bookshelves so they can be wheeled away to make room for other purposes, such as staff and student meetings and programs.
Wapato is among the Yakima County school districts that have staff assigned to libraries. In another example, every school in the West Valley School District has a library that is staffed by a classified staff member, said Superintendent Peter Finch.
Bookshelf space has decreased significantly in what had been a library at White Swan High School. The school is funded for 0.19 of a librarian, Guaglianone said, and the library area was needed for other purposes. It's used as a board meeting room now.
In early November, the high school added a Bookworm vending machine. Students can earn points for good behavior and exchange points for earn tokens and use them to get new books from the machine.
But this remote town deep on the Yakama Reservation has no other daily option for getting or checking out books. The White Swan Community Library has been closed since late March 2022.
The system's bookmobile is at the White Swan Cougar Den, which is across from the high school, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday of the first and third weeks of every month.
Other arrangements
Though the Union Gap School District has a library accessible to all students, along with some classroom libraries, the new Union Gap Library a short distance away will be another option.
"We have partnered with the Union Gap Library and will begin taking students there next week for library cards for those that need them," said Superintendent Lisa Gredvig. "A lot of teachers have already told me that they are seeing students with UG Library books, which is great."
The Toppenish School District had an agreement with Heritage University during the 2023-24 school year for library services. It allowed chaperoned Toppenish High School students to visit the Heritage library and access resources and borrow library books and other materials, according to a 2023 news release. The school's library closed in 2020 to make room for a new career center.
The library agreement isn't being used this semester, said Davidson Mance, media relations coordinator for Heritage. But library director Daniel Liestman is in touch with a history teacher who may bring a class over later this month, Mance said in an email.
Making different arrangements for school library services and writing grants have become part of school staff responsibilities. Union Gap School District staff "write a lot of grants to put books in students’ hands, not only at school but at home," Gredvig said in an email. Staff members have book fairs twice a year, keep the library updated and encourage families to sign up for Imagination Library, the Dolly Parton program that sends children free books.
"The best way to get students to read is to find books that interest them and that is what we strive to do," Gredvig said.
Reduced school library funding, including the removal of school library positions, "is definitely something that is happening across the country," said Becky Calzada, president of the American Association of School Librarians.
"If they are reliant on legislative funding and there isn't any legislative action to support that," school districts will start looking at school libraries for places to cut expenses if necessary, she said. "They start prioritizing positions. Libraries are a target. Oftentimes school librarians are cut because there's not an understanding of what they can bring to table in terms of supporting instruction, supporting teachers."
Certified school librarians support teachers with instruction, teaching, research and literacy initiatives, Calzada said.
"When you lose a school librarian, you're not impacting just students. The libraries are definitely a central hub for students and teachers and librarians will strive to create a welcoming, flexible environment. They do more than checking out books."
