Where are all the librarians?

New Assignments for APS Media Specialists | Cascade Patch
Students who have gotten used to seeing the faces of familiar media specialists in their school's libraries may be disappointed when they return to school today. That's because some media specialists have been reassigned because of the Atlanta Public Schools' cheating scandal.

Many librarians are also fully certified as classroom teachers: In fact, many librarians are semi-retired classroom teachers who wanted to return to the school, but not to the day-to-day teaching grind. But with 178 educators missing in action, Atlanta Public Schools can't be choosy. The librarians aren't happy about it: If for no other reason, this surprise was revealed to them just last week.

Those of you who know that I'm on pretty good terms with one media specialist librarian (they voted that they want to be called "librarians" and that works for me) need not be concerned. She doesn't have the certifications to be a classroom teacher. But she is still affected by this move: Since there aren't enough librarians to go around, she's now part-time at two schools rather than full-time at one.

I haven't been following the blow-by-blow of APS news coverage here the way I used to, and probably won't in the future. One, a quick Google news search for "Atlanta Public Schools" will turn up a ton of it, and two, well, there are still things I daren't say.

But other people will.