Facebook petition drive starts in support of North Allegheny library secretarial positions

Members of an online Facebook group are hoping to make their voices heard in any discussion regarding whether library secretarial positions in the North Allegheny School District could be eliminated by next summer.

Keep NA Libraries Strong was started on the popular social media site early this September. The organization states that library secretaries were called to a meeting on Aug. 18 with district administrators during which the secretaries were told the school board intends to vote in October to eliminate their positions, effective July 2023.

Board President Richard McClure deferred comment to school district spokeswoman Brandi Smith about the matter. Smith said the district cannot comment on personnel issues.

NA middle school mom Megan Majcher started an online petition Sept. 8 in support of keeping the secretaries. Within six days, the petition at change.org had garnered more than 1,700 signatures.

“As budget needs are to be examined, we have to ask, ‘what are we willing to give up and to what end’,” Majcher said.

NASH library secretary Sharon Smith also referenced the Aug. 18 meeting during a North Allegheny School Board meeting conducted on Aug. 24. She said the secretaries were assembled prior to the school year at the Central Administrative Offices and were told by school superintendent Dr. Melissa Friez that the school board planned to vote in October to eliminate the positions.

“We were all shocked to hear that the work we do for the students and the relationships we that we build, the support we give to the students every day is no longer valued by the board,” she said. “You can’t possibly know the negative impact this will have on the students.”

Margaret Foster, a member and supporter of the Keep NA Libraries Strong, was a librarian for North Allegheny for more than 23 years until her 2010 retirement. She said this move does not reflect well for the district, being that North Allegheny was awarded the Pennsylvania School Library Outstanding School Library Program Award in 2012. She said the move will affect students’ education.

As a librarian, she depended on her librarian assistant to help students while she taught classes. The assistants regularly helped students with questions, research and assignments.

“They’re just so important. They’re like your right hand,” said Foster, a past president for the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association.

The group is asking supporters to attend the October school board meeting, post yard signs, sign the petition, and email the board.