Starting during the 2026-27 school year, librarians throughout the Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) will see a decrease in the hours spent in the room that serves as their namesake: the library. This decrease is one component of a larger staff scale back in the district to accommodate future funding concerns, and though it has intentions related to sustainability, dissatisfaction has been expressed regarding the impacts this will have on individual schools, students and staff.
Luckily, despite the cutbacks being a full district move, BVH made the independent decision to maintain current library staff and hours for next year. According to BVH librarian Adrienne Marriott, only a few other schools in SUHSD have made such decisions and, as a result, they will not feel the negative impacts of a declining library. Marriott expressed relief and gratitude for being one of the few librarians in the district who were saved from a schedule change.
“Next year, I will stay full time in the library at BVH. I feel very fortunate that the school’s administration has prioritized that. At almost every other school site [in SUHSD], librarians will be reduced to ‘0.6’ in the library. What that means is the librarian will only be in the library for three out of six periods and they would teach two classes. Libraries at most other schools in the district are only going to be open for full services half of the time,” Marriott said. “I am really happy to say I do not think it is going to impact BVH staff and students. That is wonderful. What I am very sad about is all of the other students. When the library is not available all of the time, students stop coming altogether and it loses being a place of importance.”
The decision to keep libraries open full-time at BVH was an important one, and it came with a meaningful rationale. Not only did both Marriott and Principal Dr. Alexander Salazar recall harms that came with past cutbacks to librarians in the district, but other factors like BVH being an International Baccalaureate (IB) school were considerations for Salazar and scheduling staff.
“Given that we have an IB program that requires service projects and other extensive projects like the Extended Essay and the Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) project, having the library open as a resource is pretty important to our academic programs. Not just IB—other AP or English classes,” Salazar said.
Marriott echoed other ideas stated by Salazar, such as the technological benefits the library brings to students. When BVH’s single Information Technology (IT) worker is not available, Marriott can lend some help to streamline solving issues—something that would not be nearly as possible if her hours in the library were cut back.
“Administration at the district level do not realize the services used day-to-day. It is the small things—people coming in to find a novel for English or print, kids coming in to get their laptop fixed because there is only one IT tech on this campus and thousands of people, students having a place to come to work on a group project. Basically, we are here for whatever anyone needs, all day long,” Marriott said. “There are a lot of things that add up and I do not think district administration anticipated the real impact that they have.”
BVH senior Brandon Chavez has experienced the benefits of the library on a noteworthy basis, oftentimes coming to complete homework during his free period at the end of the day. For students like Chavez, the library is a valuable space that allows for quietness and productivity. Without it, he expressed he might not stay on campus at all during his free period.
“It gives students a really nice place to do work independently. You can be comfortable in the library and relax. I am welcome and can just work. Honestly, [if it were not open as much], I might just leave because there would be nowhere else,” Chavez said.
With all of these critical components in mind, Salazar and other administrative staff chose to reallocate funding in a way that prioritized keeping the library open all day. Several sources allowed them to do this in a balanced manner.
“With our administration schedule team, I looked at where we could use other funding to make up for [what was held back by the district]. I looked into other funding resources we have to see how I could supplement funding to keep our library open—district funding, Prop 28 money, Title I funding,” Salazar said. “Recognizing the importance of the library, we made it a priority to keep Mrs. Marriott [working] full time in the library, at least for next year.”
Taking the next year into account, Marriott plans to continue fostering a comfortable environment for students by offering the space as somewhere quiet, productive and safe. Salazar expressed he had used the library’s Wellness Room this past fall break, demonstrating the benefits for anyone in the BVH community. This, among promoting literacy and community, were valuable aspects of the library Salazar and Marriott highlighted.
“I am here to help students with literacy, which could be helping them find a book or information more broadly. That is the primary mission, but I think there is a more important piece of the library being a third space,” Marriott said. “It is not your home or school, but a place where you are allowed to be without being expected to buy anything. You can be inside in this place, interact with other people or not, and it is a safe space to do that. We live in a world where everything is looked at in terms of economics, but the library is not a huge economic driver. It has people being literate, informed citizens and that is really important.”
With all of the aforementioned factors in mind, SUHSD librarians came together to take action to try and prevent the harms that are seemingly inevitable with the closing of libraries for parts of the day. One of the actions they took was the creation of a website, Save Sweetwater Librarians. On top of that, Marriott explained that several of the librarians have consistently attended district board meetings to advocate for maintained library hours.
“As a librarian group, we try to be fairly vocal at school board meetings. Since January—when we found this out—a number of us have attended all of them. We have given various three minute persuasive speeches to the board,” Marriott said. “We made that site (Save Sweetwater Librarians) as an easy way for people to share what the library means to them. I have gathered meaningful comments from students, teachers and parents that each expressed the role the library plays for them and the importance of it being there full-time. I use them as personal testimonies during board meeting speeches.”
While it cannot be said for the entire district, BVH is maintaining an imperative aspect of the school community by ensuring the library stays open. Hundreds enter and exit on the daily, and it is safe to say—at least for the 2026-2027 school year—that this can continue for the various students, staff and overall BVH community.
“It is important we communicate to the BVH community that we take a balanced approach at BVH and that we value academics just as much as any other program on campus,” Salazar said. “At the end of the day, every school has two goals for their students: that they are safe and that they are learning. If you do not have the space of a library available to your students the entire day, you are not meeting those goals.”
Looking ahead at the bright future of the library, students will be able to continue printing when needed, receiving technological support when the IT is out and generally having a safe, quiet place to achieve safe learning. For librarians like Marriott, all one can wish for is this to be the case for every student—not just those fortunate enough to attend BVH.
“I encourage everyone to keep coming to the library,” Marriott said. “I hope the district administration will see the error of their ways and bring everyone back to full-time so every student at every site has the same opportunities.”
