BARRHEAD – The Barrhead Public Library is scrambling to find the money to repay Pembina Hills School Division (PHSD) for library services it deems are no longer necessary.
The school division asked for a refund of about $12,600 for services the library provides Barrhead Elementary School students (BES).
The school, like all the others in the province, shut its doors to students March 18.
The Barrhead Public Library is in the semi-unique position in terms of public libraries in that it is located inside BES and as a result, has the added responsibility of acting as the school’s library.
Barrhead Public Library board chair Ruth Bohn said the board received the request about three weeks ago.
She said shortly after receiving the letter the library board called an emergency meeting which was held through video conferencing.
“We still don’t know how we will pay the funds back. Library resources are stretched thin as we try to make the most of every dollar,” Bohn said.
She said most likely the funds would be found by cutting the hours of library staff.
Currently, due to the coronavirus outbreak, library staffing is at minimal levels, with two-part time librarians. Although the library officially closed its doors to the public on March 25, library members can still arrange to pick up “take-out” packages of books or movies from its existing catalogue.
Due to COVID-19, the library’s inter-municipal loan program that it has with the Yellowhead Regional Library (YRL), as well as the provincial TRAC (The Regional Automation Consortium), has been suspended.
Bohn added the two staff members are also working on the library’s spring and summer programming if provincial public health restrictions allow them to resume some resemblance of normal programming.
In addition, she said once the school and library reopen, the PHSD has said the library will need to take on more of the share of its maintenance and utility costs.
Bohn said while she understands the reasoning behind the request, it doesn’t make it easier.
“Part of the problem is that we get [the bulk] of our funding from three sources the Town of Barrhead, the County of Barrhead and the school division and as we know ... everyone is tightening their budgets and as a result, we end up on the bottom end.”
Pembina Hills School Division
PHSD Supt. David Garbutt said for the 2019-2020 school year, the school division provided the Barrhead Public Library with just over $52,000 ($52,430) to provide services for BES students.
The bulk of the library’s funding comes from the Barrhead municipalities in the form of an 18.44 per capita charge. The other major area of revenue for the library comes from a provincial grant pegged at ($5.55 per capita). Both the municipal and provincial figure is based on an area population of 10,867 residents.
“That service stopped when classes stopped running,” he said.
As previously mentioned, official classes at Alberta schools ceased March 18. However, Garbutt said when it comes to the amount the division is asking to be refunded for is the period between April 18 to June 30 or 2.41 months.
“We [PHSD] are doing the same thing,” Garbutt said, giving the example of the division refunding transportation fees to parents as well as Covenant Canadian Reformed School in Neerlandia. “We are not providing the service so we are refunding people and those people. In this case, we asked the library to provide a service and paid them in advance and due to the closure of schools they did not provide that service, so we are asking for a refund and we think that is reasonable.”
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
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