Editor’s Note: A version of this story was published in the Stamford Advocate.

As of August 16, the Stamford school district decided to defund seven media paraeducators’ positions throughout the district. In Stamford High School, three paraeducators were defunded, leaving only two media specialists to run the media center.

The loss has hit Stamford High and other schools fairly hard. In addition to SHS, Westhill High School has also lost three paraeducators,  while the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering has gone from two to one. The recent defunding in the budget has caused great strain on media centers in all three schools.

In Stamford High alone, Media Department Head Mary George has felt the stress of losing a majority of the paraeducators. According to George, “The defunding of the paraeducators has messed up the entire ecosystem that is the media center.” With the recent losses not only is the media center staff suffering, but there is also a toll taken on students who rely on the media center for help, whether it be with printing assignments, using computers, or those who enjoy going there for study hall. George said, “I can’t sit up front because I get no other work done. The staff I help ranges from security, special ed teachers, ELL, and teachers.”

With the increase of study halls, George has found it exceptionally difficult to keep up with the influx of students who’d rather have study hall than an elective. George has struggled to deal with the recent strain, saying that it’s hard not having the help she’s used to having. 

Teachers have also lost out.  Sara Anderson, a science teacher at SHS, said she relies on the media center for a lot of things. “Because [they aren’t] here it’s hard to get color printing,” Anderson said. Many teachers use color printing for items such as charts, passes and schedules. Anderson referenced the year-long color coded schedules that she usually likes to hand out to her freshman connection time class. “I wasn’t able to this year,” Anderson said.  

Here’s the link to petition against the loss of our media paraeducators, which was started by George and has since gathered over 1,000 signatures:

https://www.change.org/p/earl-kim-fund-reinstate-stamford-public-schools-library-paraeducators/nftexp/ex3/v1/770772739?recruiter=770772739&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish.guest_form_reduction.instant_experiences_enabled&utm_term=autopublish.guest_form_reduction&instant_experiences_enabled=true&utm_content=ex3%3Av1