For 139 years, the Ohio County Public Library funding has been a comparatively small line item in the Ohio County School Board budget.
The Board of Education in 1882 saw a need for a public library and created a library committee. The collection from a defunct library in Wheeling was then transferred to them with the stipulation that they “shall secure such legislation as will enable the Board to assume the control of the books and provide for the necessary expenses of caring for and perpetuating said library to the satisfaction of the trustees and under such conditions to be hereafter agreed upon.”
The West Virginia Legislature passed the law on February 14, 1882, providing for the establishment, maintenance, and support of a public library by the Board of Education. This tasked the county school boards with funding the libraries.
In 1904, Andrew Carnegie offered to build a new library, but local labor unions, according to the history page published by the OCPL, were against this due to Carnegie’s union busting actions during the Homestead Steel Strike. The Board of Education then assumed the expense of a the new library building.
On May 31, 1933, the state Legislature passed an act stating that the Board of Education was to levy a $.03 per $100 of assessed property values in Ohio County to be disbursed for library funding due to the fact that the library could not levy taxes itself.
That requirement changed in 2013 when, after a decade of dispute, Kanawa County Schools won a lawsuit to be able to cut that funding. They called the funding unconstitutional and cited “non-school” purposes and programming at the library.
Library Funding Change
In Ohio County, the Board of Education continued library funding at the same level until this week when the Ohio County Library had its funding cut drastically by a third during the regular school board meeting.
The Ohio County School Board of Education voted to decrease the library funding from $.03 per $100 to $0.02 per $100. A penny may seem to be insignificant at first glance but it actually translates to $589,695.22 left to budget to the Ohio County Public Library. That would be a deficit of $294,847.61. The BOE line item was 42% of the library’s total operating budget. For the average property owner, the taxes were approximately equivalent to the cost of a book or two.
This happened just a week after the BOE’s business manager, Steve Bieniek, said the schools could still operate at the decreased funding they expect next year. He called it a “correction” due to the additional $3,000,000 in funding the schools received this year.
Citing the library programming, Board President David Croft asked, “How much of that relates to Ohio County Schools?”
Continued funding of the Ohio County Library through the Ohio County Board of Education is absolutely essential in the development of our children and community. As a parent of two elementary-aged children in OCS, I can assure you that they have taken advantage of the programming almost from birth. As soon as they were able, my children attended Story Time and Toddler Time where librarians offer amazing, engaging, and educational programming.
The children’s section, founded in 1912, is so much more than just board books and primary offerings. The librarians are comrades and advocates in the education of our children. Biographies of Einstein and Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes. Caldecott Medal winners? Bill Nye videos, biology, economics, world history, poetry, art, family support, and fiction to light up the imagination? It is all there.
Library Programming and Education
My children have become avid readers and hard-working students using the resources at the library. To speak to the “non-school” programming, I give you this. My children have attended People’s University classes, which are considered “adult programming”, with the most recent being centered on science. They were able to learn and interact with scientists currently working in several fields. They looked forward to the weekly programming and even won some wonderful books on elements, molecules, and compounds that were paid for and sent by one of the participating scientists.
Before they were school-aged, they attended Lunch with Books programs especially when they involved history, art, and music. In fact, the first concert my son attended was a St. Patrick’s Day concert with traditional and modern music as well as educational facts about the culture and holiday. Every year, they participate in the Summer Reading Program and have attended the Upper Ohio Valley Festival of Books. They have learned to look up subjects they would like to learn about and independently find them in the stacks. They are responsible for checking out their choices, taking care of the books they borrow, and returning them. My children both take out about 20 books every two weeks, an experience I could never afford if I had to buy every book and periodical. They certainly cannot take that many books out at their elementary school library.
Some children have no other refuge aside from the library. They don’t have internet access, safe spaces, books at home, caring mentors, and the learning environment that a library gives. If anyone thinks that programming at the Ohio County Public Library isn’t education related for children in Ohio County, maybe they need to visit the library themselves.
What exactly are the library cuts going to be funding?
