CY-FAIR SCHOOL DISTRICT – Fired by email.
Twenty-four minutes before midnight.
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Many Cy-Fair librarians were sleeping when the email hit their Inbox at 11:36 p.m. and woke up Wednesday to the distressing news their jobs are gone.
“Thank you for your service as a campus librarian. This email is to share that you have not been selected as a CFISD District Librarian,” it starts out.
The email explains how the district decided which librarians would be cut and lets them know they’ll be placed on the “excess list” that principals will have access to, although we’re not clear on what that means.
The tone and timing of the email didn’t sit well with Ashley Buckner.
“They couldn’t even offer the courtesy of a phone call?”
Buckner attended Cy-Fair schools and now volunteers at the library her son attends. She’s organizing other parents in a Facebook group Called CFISD Parents for Librarians, telling KPRC 2 that libraries are the heart of the district’s schools.
“The entire floor plan of these schools is built around the library. Students are passing it multiple times a day. As diverse as the district has become, it’s been a safe space for students to go, for instance during Ramadan when they were fasting. For students who are homeless, it’s a safe space,” Buckner says.
On the wave of the district’s 138-million-dollar budget deficit, the anxiety for Cy-Fair ISD’s 92 librarians ramped up last Friday when Superintendent Douglas Killian met with them to announce some positions would be eliminated and others reassigned.
One librarian told KPRC 2 the proposed plan would drop the number of district librarians to 42, to cover the district’s 59 elementary schools, 20 middle schools and 12 high schools. A total of 88 schools, according to the district’s website.
“I personally think that God put me in my job, that I was called to be a librarian,” one worker, who did not want to be identified, told KPRC 2′s Corley Peel. “For me personally, it’s the heart of the campus,” she said.
According to last night’s email, librarians who will keep their jobs were selected based on their seniority and the value of their experience with the district.
“If a person had library experience at both elementary and middle school, they were assigned the level based on their majority level of experience. If a librarian had high school experience, they were allocated a high school position due to the specialized knowledge of literature appropriate for high school curriculum.” the email said.
Buckner’s grassroots mission to build support for librarians is gaining momentum. The Facebook page she launched Monday has over 5,000 members and she says over 10K people have popped in to see what’s being said.
Today, when Buckner posted a screengrab of the 11:36 p.m. job cuts email, the comments toward the district were not kind.
“This is, quite possibly, the coldest rejection letter I have ever read. No acknowledgment of service, no apology for emailing you near midnight so you wake up to this in the morning. Just a, ‘Hey, you get to be excess!’ Rude” - Bethany K. Thompson
“This is horrible to send at 11:30pm. In any other job, your boss brings you in and tells you face to face. I understand this isn’t your principals decision, so the district, Mr Killian himself, should’ve made the 50 phone calls himself Wednesday or during this week [sic]. If staff is so important to our district, they at least deserved a phone call during normal hours about this, not to go to sleep or wake up to an email saying you’re out of a job. I’m heartbroken for all who will get this news, and for the ones who keep their jobs who are feeling ‘survivors guilt’.” - Lisa Dejoie
“This is like breaking up over text after a long relationship. This makes a sad situation even worse.” - Courtney Pagel Spradley
“As an HR professional. I am saddened the district chose this avenue to communicate. I understand wanting to move as quickly as possible with information, and these processes take time. But, anyone being told they no longer have a position deserves a phone call at the very least. That is common, professional courtesy.” - Laurie Hanks Alexander
For her part, Buckner says she’s not stopping until there’s a librarian guaranteed on every campus.
The librarian who didn’t want to be identified told KPRC 2′s Corley Peel what the consequence of losing so many librarians could be, over time.
“I think in the long run it’s going to hurt test scores; it’s going to hurt graduation rates, it’s going to hurt the skillset that students have when they leave high school and go out into the world,” the librarian who doesn’t want to be identified told us.
Her message for administrators?
“Librarians are relevant,” she said, choking up. “It’s hard to relay the joy of recommending a book to a child, and that child coming back and saying, ‘I loved it.’”
We reached out to Cy-Fair ISD with these specific questions:
- How many librarians got the email last night saying they didn’t get selected to stay with the district full-time?
- What happens to those librarians?
- What is the “excess” list and how does it work?
- How do they respond to criticism of the tone and time timing (11:36 pm) of last night’s job elimination email to librarians?
Leslie Francis, the district’s media contact responded with this message:
Staff reduction is inevitable when almost 90% of the budget is allocated to personnel. Due to a projected $138 million deficit for the 2024-2025 school year, the plan includes a reduction from 92 Campus Librarians to 42 District Librarians. Additionally, district-wide, approximately 320 teachers, 66 paraprofessionals and support staff, 150 district/campus level administrators and professional support staff, and 60 operations and 21 maintenance positions are impacted by the budget reduction. Librarians were notified yesterday if they were selected as one of the 42 District Librarians; the others will be absorbed into vacant positions for which they are certified and/or qualified for.