The Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS) will now have a harder time living up to its tagline: "Every Student, a Reader."

The days of a professional full-time librarian presiding over the reference desk and bookshelves at each of our 34 school are over, at least for now.

Facing a $4 million deficit for the coming school year, the school district had to make significant budgetary cuts to avoid going bankrupt.

It was a well-kept secret until May, when Superintendent Tom Murphy announced the district's dire financial picture.

During the well-attended and often discordant school board meeting last Tuesday, the board voted 4 to 1 to adopt a revised budget for the 2006/2007 school year.

The result: 20 librarian-teachers will be reassigned to the classroom and the district's middle and high schools will have a librarian on duty only one day per week. Non-certificated aides will supervise school libraries on the other days. The 14 remaining "itinerant" librarians will rotate from school to school.

"The administration decided to give themselves a hefty raise instead of maintaining essential programs for our children," said Camelot librarian Marie-Anne Harkness last Wednesday.

All the elementary schools, with the exception of Mark Twain Elementary, will have a librarian on duty part-time. Due to the size and particular needs of its student body, Mark Twain will be the only school in the district to have a full-time librarian when the school year starts in September.

Community response to the discussion and subsequent decision ranged from vocal disgust to quiet acceptance.

"Choo-choo! Choo-choo! This is a railroad job!" hollered Helen Stanwell, a past contender for a seat on the board and district substitute teacher. Stanwell felt the board, Castellar in particular, was pushing for passage of the proposed budget before all viable options were explored.

Community members Robin Garcia and Sheryl De Tray said they came to support the librarians. "We're very disappointed," the women agreed as they left council chambers.

"It was a very difficult decision, but seems to be the only course of action," commented Vicki Knutson, a Federal Way parent.

Initially, the budget proposed by Superintendent Murphy in May recommended that 27 of the 34 school librarian positions be cut.

After considerable public outcry, board president Evelyn Castellar asked Sally McLean, the district's chief financial officer, to provide an alternative proposal, "Plan B," which preserves 14 librarian positions, mostly at the elementary level.

Despite impassioned pleas from parents, teachers and librarians such as Marie-Anne Harkness, the board ultimately voted for the cuts.

"While we thank the community for speaking up so eloquently on behalf of the school teacher-librarians over the past months to convince the school board to improve the deplorable plan to cut teacher-librarian positions down to seven," said Harkness, "much work needs to be done to reinstate fully the highly-qualified full-time school librarians that we've had in each Federal Way school for more than 20 years."

Joe Gotchy, a FWPS employee for over 30 years, implored the board to reconsider the plan to "dismantle" the library system.

"You can't run a library program one day a week. This is really going to hurt kids from economically disadvantaged homes, who don't have access at home to books or guidance in using research tools. The librarians that are being cut are not entry level folks, they are professionals, usually with Master's degrees, who understand how to use the digital media and can help students learn how to find and analyze information," said Gotchy.

Bill Mooth, a long-time resident whose three children attended Federal Way public schools, is a member of the financial advisory committee (FAC) that makes recommendations to district administration. Mooth told the Federal Way News last week that there were other options available, such as closing down one or more schools with low enrollment or cutting positions within the athletic departments instead of librarians.

"It was certainly not a unanimous recommendation coming from the FAC. I voted against the gutting of our library system," said Mooth.

"Do we really need an athletic director at each school? Why not one for the district?' Mooth inquired.

Charles Hoff, who cast the one dissenting vote, also made the case for cutting athletic programs and staff to balance the budget.

"Are we in the education business or the recreation business?" asked Hoff.

"Our charter says it's our job to educate children, not teach them how to throw a ball."

In a heartfelt response, newest board member Dave Larson said that school athletics were a crucial educational tool.

"It's painful to say, but I suffered from childhood depression...and I couldn't put two words together, I was so shy. It was only through athletics that I became the person I am today," Larson said.

The adopted budget calls for an increase in sport participation fees. In the fall, high school students will pay $120 per sport and middle school students $70 per sport. For low-income students who qualify, those fees will be $50 and $30 respectively.

Early into last Tuesday's meeting, his colleagues selected Dave Larson to be the district's legislative representative. That means it will be up to Larson, as a member the Washington State School Directors' Association, to meet with the legislature to lobby for remedying state funding inequities.

As Larson and others explained over the past few months, a good deal of district's financial woes stem from state funding inequities after passage of the 1977 Basic Education Act.

According to the district, "The state continues to mandate that the district provide $13.3 million in education services yearly without providing funding for them,"

"It's going to take a unified effort of the entire community to overcome these funding inequities," urged Larson.

Penny Howard, a mother of three Woodmont Elementary students, wants the board held accountable in their promises to seek help from the State legislature.

"I want them to tell us what we community members can do to change our district allocation, I want effective leadership," said Howard firmly. "This is an outrage."