ABC News 4: Seventeen Teachers to Be Let Go by Ogden School District at End of School Year - Updated

It gets interestinger and interestinger as the 2014 General Election approaches, dunnit?

There's more bad news for the children of the Ogden School District, as ABC News 4 reports that our Ogden School Board has followed up last year's devastating Librarian, Adult Education and Reading Coach kill-offs with a new round of sure-to-be-painful staff cuts.  Although the District's rationale is murky, what is clear is that it's 17 Ogden school teachers who'll be looking for new jobs next year:

• Seventeen teachers to be let go by Ogden School District at end of school year (w/Video)

We've also learned from a reliable source that of this seventeen, at least eleven are union members.

Coincidence?  Or is Ogden School Board management (so-called) now embarking on a new "tea party style" union-busting venture?

We're also informed that the Standard-Examiner staff is working on a followup story, which we'll link, assuming something a little more tangible pops up.

Stay tuned, folks.

It gets interesting and interestinger as the 2014 General Election approaches, dunnit?

Update 4/2/14 7:42 a.m.: As predicted above, The Standard-Examiner is all over this story, revealing, among things, that a seemingly disproportionate 6 teachers from Highland Junior High School will receive their "walking papers":

• Ogden axes 17 teachers, including 6 at Highland

Displayed within this link is an "official" roster of Highland faculty and staff.  Scroll down and do the math:

• Highland Junior High School Faculty & Staff

Standard-Examiner: Watchdog Groups Vow to Keep Pressure on Ogden School District

A Weber County Forum Tip 'O The Hat to the fine folks of Focus Ogden and the Democratic Education Caucus of Weber County, inasmuch as we Ogden City lumpencitizens have been far too complacent for far too long

Notable development concerning the Ogden School District topic, with this morning's Nancy Van Valkenburg story reporting that "two local groups that sprung up in reaction to controversial decisions by the Ogden School District are pledging to make their voices heard, on both the district and state levels":

• Watchdog groups vow to keep pressure on Ogden School District

For our readers convenience, here are the web links for these community-minded groups, for those who'd like to "stay in the loop":

• Focus Ogden
• Democratic Education Caucus of Weber County

Within this morning's story, Ms Van Valkenburg also mentions "a June 12 letter to the Ogden board, seeking information." Inasmuch as we believe the information requests contained in this letter may have important significance as these two groups move forward, we've uploaded and linked it for future reference:

• 06/12/2013 Kim Irvine Letter

Notably, among other things, this letter obliquely refers to certain School Board "fiduciary competency" questions which we've previously raised here on Weber County County Forum, so far without much real public consternation:

• Ogden City Schools - Possible Tax Increment Malfeasance - Junction and River Project Bailouts  

A Weber County Forum Tip 'O The Hat to the fine folks of Focus Ogden and the Democratic Education Caucus of Weber County for perking up their ears, fine-tuning the issues and vowing to keep our "esteemed" Ogden School Board's feet to the fire, inasmuch as, in our belief at least, we Ogden City lumpencitizens have been far too complacent for far too long.

Big Meetin' Tonite - Save Our Librarians! - Updated

If you can't make the meeting, at least call your School Board Reps

Important notice concerning the ongoing Ogden School District media specialist/librarian "massacre", which we received just a couple of minutes ago via the Weber County Democrats:

Save our Librarians! Come to the open board meeting of the Ogden City School Board tonight! Details below...

The school board meeting will be held at the district offices on Monroe tonight (Thursday 5/16/13) at 6 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend and wear our stickers that say "The library is a classroom."

Please call your School Board Representative and share with them your concerns. They are the ones who can change the outcome of this by rejecting the proposed budget. Steve Marker is the only one so far who has committed to doing that.

Here are their phone numbers:

Precinct 1 - Don Belnap - 801-392-7002
Precinct 2 - Steve Marker - 801-510-1946 (has already agreed to vote no)
Precinct 3 - Jennifer Zundel - 801-782-1918
Precinct 4 - Jeffrey Heiner - 801-621-8426
Precinct 5 - Shane Story - 801-621-0018
Precinct 6 - Jeff Harris - 801-394-2161
Precinct 7 - Joyce Wilson - 801-394-3267

Show up in force, folks; but please... remember to mind your "manners."

We don't wanna see any of tonight's meeting attendees have to be forced to make an "emergency" call to our old buddy "Eddie" after all... if you know what we mean, and we think you do...

Comments anyone?

Feelin' the Heat

Update 5/17/13 8:00 a.m.:   Yep.  Just like clockwork, the Standard's Nancy Van Valkenburg is front and center this morning with a post meeting story, reporting about how a standing-room only crowd hammered our OSD Board and District Superintendent over the  Ogden School District Media Specialist/librarian "Massacre" the Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," and the "OSD Reading Coach kill-off". Adding fuel to the fire, Ms. Van Valkenburg further reports that, surprize of surprizes, there were even a "few" steely-eyed Ogden City lumpencitizens calling for Superintendent Smith's head... on a plate:

• Ogden School Board faces anger over cutbacks

Imagine that.

As an added bonus the Standard provides this butt-kickin' video "special," "capturing the moment in time" for posterity:

Standard.net Video Player

Gotta hand it to the Standard. When they're good, they're very good pretty danged excellent!

Weber County Forum Question of the Day: Is It Time For An Ogden/Weber School District Merger?

Theoretically, at least, the consolidation of these two districts could save Weber County taxpayers millions of dollars

More interesting over-the-weekend news concerning Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith's Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," wherein Nancy Van Valkenburg expands upon her earlier story on this topic and reports that officials of the Weber County School District, upon learning of the OSD's "decision to eliminate its adult education program Thursday morning," and being asked by the Utah State Office of Education “to assume full responsibilities,” cheerfully and immediately rolled out the welcome mat to the Ogden District's "booted" AEP students, with open arms, more or less:

• Weber district to absorb Ogden district's adult ed program

This noble gesture of course invites the question, folks:  "Is it time for the citizens of Weber County to put the question of a "complete" Weber County School District/Ogden School District merger back on the table?"

WCF readers with long memories will of course recall a 1989 proposal to consolidate these administratively-redundant school districts, a measure which actually appeared on Weber County ballots in November of that year. Weber County voters however then "muffed" the chance to drastically improve these geographically-overlapping districts' inefficient government services redundancy, succumbing instead to the pleas of vested interests within both school districts, who beat the bush "door-to-door," warning of "dropped jobs" and "loss of local (Ogden) school district autonomy."

Perhaps it's time for Weber County lumpencitizens to revisit this issue again, we'll suggest.  Looking at this issue solely from the a "bean counter" point of view, the consolidation of these two districts, and the elimination of the redundancies of the dual tiers of "fat cat" existing school system administrators alone could save Weber County taxpayers millions of dollars:

• Utah's Right to Know - Salaries - Ogden School District
• Utah's right to Know - Salaries - Weber School District

Throwin' in the Towel?

Additional sodden questions:

1. Taking into account the OSD's recent "nuclear" attacks on the very foundations of the Ogden School System, is it possible that OSD officials are actually and intentionally operating with a hidden agenda, an agenda designed to once again force Weber County voters' hands on this issue?
2. Are OSD officials in reality owning up to their managerial malperfomance and gross financial incompetence, and essentially throwing in the towel?

So what do you think, O Gentle Ones?

Would the consolidation of the separate Ogden and Weber School Districts into a single "lean and mean" Ogden/Weber School District "educational machine" be the kind of idea whose time has at long last come?

Don't let the cat get your tongues...

The Sea of Troubles Continues to Boil in the Ogden School District This Morning

The plot sickens; 250 "reading coaches" tossed overboard

OSD "Captain" Smith

The "sea of troubles" continues to boil in and around the Ogden City School District this morning, in the wakes of Ogden School Superintendent Brad Smith's Ogden School District Media Specialist/librarian Massacre and his Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," as the Standard-Examiner runs a couple of new items this morning demonstrating that our seemingly desperate and suddenly pinch-penny OSD Captain Smith is apparently nowhere near done with cutting the Ogden City Schools' budget clean down to the water line.

Check out this morning's Nancy Van Valkenburg's story, folks, which reports that Ogden City school-kids will be suddenly doing without the services of 250 "reading coaches" who'll be tossed overboard very soon:

• More than 250 reading coaches latest casualties in Ogden School District

And here's an eye-opening Standard-Examiner video piece showing the reaction to this news from the reading coach "crew":


"Who's gonna help the kids read?" one short-timer reading coach asks.

"Will the The Captain" "go down" with the apparently sinking OSD ship?" That's our sodden question, Peeps.

We'll close up Ms. Van Valkenburg's morning OSD article series with a story about the online petition we wrote about and linked a couple of days ago:

• Mom petitions over firings

Here's another quick link to the petition, by the way... just in case you "forgot" to sign it [wink-wink]:

• Petition to the Ogden School District: Retain Certified Librarians in our schools district wide 

And please don't let the cat get yer tongues (whatever you do).

Angry Parents Confront Ogden Superintendent Over Media Specialist Jobs

Ogden School District Superintendent/Lumpencitizen meetups:  A helpful tactic; or just another exercise in futility?

As a followup to Tuesday's WCF writeup, wherein we announced that Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith had issued "upset local school library-excellence lumpencitizen proponents 'command performance invitations' for additional "in-office" browbeatings," the Standard carries a story this morning reporting that "[c]lose to 140 angry parents and community members showed up Wednesday morning for a meeting with Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith, to urge him and district officials to reconsider the decision that, if approved in June, will cost the district’s 20 certified media specialists their jobs." Superintendent Smith caught a three-hour ear-full, according to Nancy Van Valkenberg's post-meeting story:

• Standard-Examiner Video - Angry Parents Confront OSD Superintendent Brad Smith over media specialist jobs

As an added bonus for those who are closely following developments in this riveting Ogden School District media specialist/librarian "massacre" flap, the Standard also provides this "companion" video story:


So what about it, folks?  Does it appear, based upon this morning's reportorial evidence, that  Superindendant Smith has in any manner "budged" from his decision to give our Ogden school librarians the ax? Or will yesterday's meeting, and this morning's Heather Turner meetup, amount to just another couple of more exercises in futility?

Breaking: Obstreperous Ogden School System Excellence Advocates "Called to the Principal's Office"

Torches and pitchforks will be de riguer, of course

It’s with considerable interest that we'll make note of a coupla new developments in the Ogden School District media specialist/librarian "massacre" flap, as we learn this morning that OSD "headsman" Brad Smith has issued to upset local school library-excellence lumpencitizen proponents "command performance invitations"  for visits to his office for additional "in-office" browbeatings. One additional closely-related purpose, we suppose? To receive proper indoctrination straight from the mouth of OSD's top-paid administrative bureaucrat (and a few lackey Ogden School Board cronies) on the topic of why Ogden City schools should strive to be second-rate, of course:

1) "Concerned" parents of Ogden City school-kids are "invited" to "turn themselves in" promptly at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, according to this morning's Nancy Van Valkeburg story:

Parents invited to meet with Brad Smith

There's no word, unfortunately, whether "nonparents" will be shut out of this meeting.

OSD Boss "Requests" Meetings

2) And from the "OSD Retain Certified Librarians in our schools district wide" petition website we've gleaned this tidbit of information concerning a special, individual, non-public spanking calendered for Thursday (May 9) at 10:30 a.m., as the particularly obstreperous petition organizer Heather Turner has been "called to the principals's office,, it seems:

Meeting Request from our Super Intendent
Heather Turner
by Heather Turner
Petition Organizer

Hello All,
Super Intendent, Brad Smith, has agreed to meet with me this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. I am looking forward to this meeting to discuss their proposal to remove all Certified Librarians from Elementary and Junior High schools. If you have ideas or suggestions concerning the budget, please post them on the petition website so that we can work together in this.
Thank you for your efforts.
Sincerely,
Heather Turner

Although this latter event is billed as a private, closed-door tongue lashing, we see no reason at all why school librarian-friendly Ogden School System Excellence Advocates with a little free time on their hands shouldn't plan to mill around Smith's office Thursday morning to render their support.

Torches and pitchforks will be de riguer, of course:

Time to get your lumpencitizen protest props & garb outta mothballs, wethinks.

The floor's open, O Gentle Ones, as always.

Online Petition to the Ogden School District: Retain Certified Librarians in Our Schools District-wide

You know what to do. Do it on the internet

Thanks to a tip from yet another sharp-eyed and alert WCF reader, we're delighted to report this morning about a new and highly encouraging development concerning the ongoing Ogden School District media specialist/librarian "massacre" flap. It was inevitable, we suppose, that some enterprising Ogden lumpencitizen would get around to putting together an online petition; and surely as the night follows the day, we find that one such such civic-minded person, aka Heather Turner, has done just exactly that.

You know what to do...
Do it on the internet

You know what to do.  Do it on the internet:

• Petition to the Ogden School District: Retain Certified Librarians in our schools district wide

Tell our Ogden School District administrative fatcats (and their Ogden School Board lapdogs)  that you'll  tolerate neither the "gutting" of the OSD library system," nor their continuing knuckle-headed policy of  "educating" Ogden City school-kids "on the cheap."

Standard-Examiner Editorial: Cutting Media Specialists Unwise

As one gentle S-E reader wrly hints,"I think the proper word to describe OSD Superintendent Smith's performance --- a word the SE editorial board tip-toes delicately around --- is "incompetent."

Smith and the board appear eager to run the district like a business. But public education is not a business, and education on the cheap will cheat students.

Standard-Examiner Editorial
Our View: Cutting media specialists unwise
May 3, 2013

The Superintendent justified the mass layoffs in no small way on grounds that no other school district in the state had licensed professional media specialists in its schools, and there had been no ill-consequences. Since that turns out not to be so, as the SE quickly discovered and reported, I think the proper word to describe his performance --- a word the SE editorial board tip-toes delicately around --- is "incompetent."

Standard-Examiner Reader Comment
Our View: Cutting media specialists unwise
May 3, 2013

More strong words on the Standard-Examiner editorial page this morning, as the editorial board pulls no punches and follows up on yesterday's flurry of angry lumpencitizen letters and editorial pieces slamming the Ogden School District's knuckle-headed and "mistaken" decision to terminate the positions of 20 professional media specialist/librarians in OSD schools:

• Our View: Cutting media specialists unwise

Kudos to the Standard, as it adopts this morning's "double-barreled" editorial approach, i.e., 1) impeccably arguing that "[i]In a world with limitless information gathering, including changing traditional media and the Internet, having a professional teach research skills and guide students to credible sources is important," (especially to disadvantaged Ogden City school-kids), and, 2) strongly slamming both Superintendent Smith and the Ogden School Board itself  for their ham-handed mishandling of this "lightning rod" Ogden Schools "budgetary" matter:

The district’s wholesale cuts were also handled badly, with false information attributed to Smith. Also, how the job cuts were announced were disrespectful to those affected. At first, Smith claimed that the Ogden School District is the only remaining district on the Wasatch Front to employ licensed teachers as media specialists in their libraries. That was false. Representatives of Davis, Morgan, and Weber school districts quickly corrected the record, noting they keep licensed media specialists at their secondary schools. That was a shoddy bit of false information, particularly on a day where 20 professionals learned their jobs were to be terminated without compensation.
Also, the failure of Smith, Ogden School Board President Shane Story, or any member of the school board, to be present when the media specialists were informed their jobs were to be cut show a lack of leadership by the district’s highest officials. When leaders make tough decisions, they don’t outsource the announcements. Not being there to face those affected when this decision was announced seems cowardly.

Incompetetent? 
You be the judge!

Gentle Reader Bob Becker of course "takes it up a notch"  with his wry hint,"I think the proper word to describe [OSD Superintendent Smith's] performance --- a word the SE editorial board tip-toes delicately around --- is "incompetent."

While we won't fault the Standard for being perhaps a little overly polite, even within in the context of  an otherwise bruising editorial, we'll nevetherless thus enthusiastically join with the Standard in demanding that these ill-conceived media specialist/librarian cuts be summarily reversed.  Surely there must be some other useless OSD deadwood from which the Ogden District Schools budgetary shortfalls could be more sensibly cleared up... without "cheating" the students, right?

• Utah's Right to Know - Salaries - Ogden School District

Just a thought...

The Lumpencitizens Rise Up in Opposition to the Gutting of the Ogden School District Library System

"One small thing that librarians teach students is to properly research and document their assertions.  We call on Superintendent Smith to do the same"

Top-notch guest editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner, wherein S-E citizen-contributor Kathy Gambles passionately and articulately leaps off Ogden Schools Superintendent Brad Smith's bone-headed decision to fire twenty Ogden School District media specialist librarians and turn over critically-important OSD library operations function to ill-trained, non-professional, part-time "staff assistants."

• Teacher librarians are too important to cut

"Twenty-four independent state studies  from across the nation now document the definite impact of teacher librarians and school libraries on students’ achievement scores. These studies show a direct correlation between quality school library media programs with teacher librarians and increased student achievement, as shown through increased reading levels, higher test scores, and general overall academic achievement," Ms. Gamble says. Hopefully, Superintendent Smith will write this all down so he doesn't forget it.

Barometer of Public Opinion?

And as a possible public opinion "barometer" of how Smith's short-sighted decision has inflamed the passions of local citizens, take a gander at the flurry of angry lumpencitizen letters which have already accumulated on the S-E website, slamming the sheer idiocy of the Smith's planned "gutting" of the OSD library "system":

• Superintendent Smith 'takes the heart out of schools'
• Passionate librarians integral part of education
• Librarians teach students to evaluate web sources
• Media specialists teach kids to love reading
• Superintendent Smith should 'document assertions'

In the latter letter, one S-E reader sets forth some good questions and makes a particularly strong point, wethinks:

How much is the budget deficit? This is the middle of Smith’s second year. What has happened?  Just how much additional monies will the Affordable Care Act cost the district? Isn’t the district saving money by cutting part-time workers’ hours so that none receive health care? How will retirement changes affect the budget?  What other cost saving measures had been taken before deciding to cut librarians? Have there been any cuts to personnel at the district level?
One small thing that librarians teach students is to properly research and document their assertions.  We call on Superintendent Smith to do the same.

Interesting sidebar story we'll link before closing. Apparently sensitive to the constant complaint that Smith doesn't have even a minute's time under his belt as a professional educator, Smith's decided to roll up his sleeves, join the ranks of Ogden teaching professionals (nominally, at least) and donate a little bit of his "spare" time to the "art" of teaching:

• School superintendent to teach constitutional law elective

It'll be interesting, don'tcha think, to find out whether Smith is more capable of teaching a course in a field which (theoretically) he "ought" to know something about, as opposed to managing a public school system, something which Smith clearly knows nothing about, que no?

So who'll be the first to throw in their own 2¢?

Thursday Morning Weber County Forum News Roundup

Sage editorial advice for Senator Christensen; harsh lessons in Utah civics for one eighth-grader; and local cops "dress up" like combat troops and pretend to be actual "tough-guys"

We've rounded up a few interesting local news stories this morning, just to give our ever-restless WCF readers a little something to chew on this morning. Here they are, reeled out in no particular order of importance, if only to set your idle tongues all awaggin':

1) Strong editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner, urging State Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, erstwile winner of the 2013 Elmer Fudd lookalike contest, to exercise some restraint and to "chill" on his "solemn" vow "to make sure a bill vetoed by the governor — that allows to carry a concealed, unloaded gun without a permit — is passed early in next year’s legislative session":

• Our View: Christensen’s gun charge

The Standard advises "Christensen, and others who support an HB76-type bill to "avoid the attitude of 'this-bill-is-just-fine-as-it-is,'” "take the long break before next year’s legislative session," "really talk to the public about their proposal," and "provide sensible arguments as to why Utah gun laws are so insufficient that an HB76-type remedy is needed;" and wethinks the Standard is exactly right about this.

And why do we question the wisdom of a bill which would allow all Utah "adults" to pack their 2d Amendment heavy artillery concealed?  The unassilable fact that some Utah "adults" just "might" be a "mite" more "adult"  than some other "adult" Utahns  will effortlessly provide our "nutshell" rationale, we'll suppose:

Yep. That just about sums it all up, que no?

Fatcat OSD Bureaucrat #1

2) Harsh lessons in Utah civics were learned by a Mount Ogden Junior High eighth-grader this week, or so the Standard reports, as a concerned and enterprising Ogden school-kid had the audacity to tangle with an intransigent Ogden School District Supervisor Brad Smith (Official motto: dumbing down Utah schoolkids 20 librarians at a time) over Smith's gutting of the OSD library system.  What's clear is that Smith's mind is already made up, despite Emery Young's veritable laundry list of good ideas.  And Smith's solution to OSD's funding problem?  Send a pack of fat-cat school administrators on a junket  to the University of Virginia, to bone up on further leading-edge "school turnaround" strategies, we suppose:

• After walkout fizzles, Ogden student activist meets with super over librarian issue

A Weber County Forum Tip O' the Hat to the young Emery Young, however. It's quite encouraging, wethink, to observe a fresh new generation of steely-eyed Ogden City political activists rising up.

3) Mind boggling puff-piece in the Standard, featuring a small array of pictures showing local cops dressed up like combat troops and touting "the first weeklong training session of the fledgling Tactical Operations Group, which is planned to be an annual event":

• New Weber police unit practices door kicking in mockups

“We want to inoculate these guys to everything that could happen as realistically as possible,” says Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force and TOG administrator Troy Burnett, thus prompting this sodden blogmeister query:

"Are these fellers devoting any time at all, as part of their 'simulated' door-kicking warrant service practice, toward 'innoculating' themselves in the direction of developing the 'highly-practical' preliminary skill of finding the right friggin' 'simulated address' in the first-place?"

Somehow, we suspect not...

Just a thought...

Standard-Examiner: Ogden District Won't Lose Accreditation Over Librarian Cuts, Says Official

Meanwhile, back at local level, some local School District mouthpieces don't seem quite so sure about that

Click to enlarge

The Standard-Examiner is back at us with a followup to Weber County's Forum's 4/28/13 story this morning, now reporting that Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith's mass Ogden School District librarian/media specialist layoffs aren't half as bad as they appeared to be, from the perspective of Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation, at least:

"While many secondary schools in Utah have licensed teachers as media specialists, it is not a requirement by the state," said Tiffany Hall, K-12 literacy coordinator for the Utah State Office of Education. “It is one of the accreditation assurances, especially at the secondary level,” Hall said. “But it isn’t enough that the school would lose accreditation,” S-E reporter Rachel J. Trotter encouragingly reports in the full story linked below:

• Ogden district won't lose accreditation over librarian cuts, says official

Meanwhile, back at local  level, some of the local School District mouthpieces don't seem quite so sure about that:

“We knew it would affect [accreditation assurances with the media specialists], but we didn’t know exactly how,” Ogden School Board President Shane Story readily admits.

“We will make sure the high schools make their accreditation requirements,” the same initially clueless School Board member nevertheless faithfully assures us.

Deadwood?

Okay. We get it: The Ogden School District is facing a funding crisis, a situation that we can blame not only on our ridiculously tight-fisted Utah Legislature, but also onto the Ogden School Board's gross financial mismanagement itself.

Yes. There's a chance that among the other multiplicity of factors influencing the granting of accreditation, the fact that Ogden Schools officials decided to apply the meat cleaver to media-specialized school librarians might get ultimately lost in the accreditation shuffle. And yes: The situation is clear; hard choices need to be made. Despite an ample amount of "blame" to spread all around, the Schools Superintendent and the Board of Education need to seriously cut some deadwood somewhere; but why throw under the bus the leading edge, technologically-savvy librarian/media specialists, we ask?

And speakin' of deadwood, check this out.  There are no fewer than forty-one (count'em 41) Ogden School District administrators who annually pull down salaries in excess of six figures, according to the wonderfully ever-informative utahsright.com website:

• Utah's Right to Know - Salaries - Ogden School District

OSD Administrator Payday

Hell's bells, people, Ogden Schools Superintendent Smith, whose accumulated Utah classroom teaching experience doesn't encompass even one single day of his pitiful and pathetic professional life, banks an annual Utah taxpayer paycheck (with perqs) is that is even in excess of the salary of our esteemed Utah Governor Herbert, ferchripesakes.  So go figure.

Something to think about when we consider Ogden City Schools budget cuts, wethinks.

And what say you, O Gentle Ones?

Ogden City School District Gives Ogden School Librarians the Ax

Notwithstanding the mountain of additional evidence linking high-quality school library/media programs with heightened student achievement, it seems that the Ogden School Board stands hellbent to move full speed ahead

Bad news for Ogden City school-kids this morning, as both the Standard and the Tribune report this morning the latest bone-headed Ogden School District cost cutting action, whereby "[t]wenty media specialists/librarians were told Friday morning they would not have jobs with the Ogden School District next year," in a move which will reportedly save the OSD $930,000 per year.

• Ogden School District notifies librarians of job terminations
• Cutting costs, Ogden School District plans to end full-time school librarians

Fox 13 News is all over this story too, with this short video vignette:


Interestingly, despite the reported evidence that "[t]hree [other] Top of Utah school districts contacted Friday say they use licensed teachers in their secondary schools," Ogden District Superintendent Brad Smith nevertheless steadfastly maintains that  "the Ogden School District is the only remaining district on the Wasatch Front to employee licensed teachers as media specialists in their libraries,"according to the above Standard-Examiner story.

And notwithstanding the mountain of research data linking high-quality school library/media programs with heightened student achievement, it seems that the Ogden School Board stands hellbent to adopt ODS Superintendent Smith's strict austerity approach. “We need to look at how we can least negatively affect student achievement,” OSB member Shane Story says.

Keep in mind folks, these Ogden School District bureaucrats who are now cutting OSD school library staffs to the bone are also the very same folks who turned down between $496 and $686 thousand in projected annual tax increment dollars, when they boarded the Boss Godfrey bandwagon, and willfully (if not eagerly) participated in the the 2009 Ogden Council bailout of the financially-failing Ogden Junction project. Needless to say, we're accordingly a mite skeptical of their financial acumen in matters such as this, to say the least. Moreover, we don't believe it is unfair to suggest that the current cash-flow dilemma amounts to one of the School Board's own making.

Unhappy with the way this matter is being rolled out?  Encouraged by School Board President Shane Story's hint that "there is always a chance things can change before June"? You can contact your Ogden City School Board officials through the OSD page linked below:

• Ogden Board of Education

Don't let the cat get your tongues, whatever you do, as in dire circumstances such as this, "silence" is definitely not "golden."