Grossmont Union High School District has agreed to bring back all nine of its teacher librarians for the 2027-28 school year, closing out more than a year of turmoil that began when the East County district eliminated the positions and touched off lawsuits, union grievances and accusations of political retaliation against LGBTQ+ supporters.
The reinstatement settles a labor dispute between the district and the teachers union, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Under the agreement, the district will offer each impacted library media specialist reinstatement to their respective 2024-2025 position for the 2027-28 school year, and in exchange, the union will withdraw an unfair practice charge and release related claims before the California Public Employment Relations Board. The settlement does not resolve the ongoing civil litigation over the cuts, and the next hearing in that lawsuit is scheduled for March.
The saga traces back to February 2025, when the Grossmont board voted 4-1 to eliminate school-site librarian positions, with trustee Chris Fite casting the lone dissenting vote. The exact scope of those layoffs has been described differently depending on the source: KPBS reported that the board voted in February 2025 to eliminate 49 staff positions, including librarians, teachers and other staff, to help close an anticipated $2.4 million budget deficit.
A Former Chief of Staff's Role in the Cuts
Jerry Hobbs, the district's former chief of staff, urged the board to target librarians for budget cuts and described them as anti-board and wasteful of district money on what he called woke books, per the seed reporting. Hobbs later resigned following scrutiny of his hire. The affected librarians were reassigned to other roles, with some moved into classrooms to teach subjects like English or history, according to the same KPBS report on the district's library cuts.
In place of teacher librarians, the district installed library technicians whose duties were mostly limited to checking out books and maintaining collections, the station reported. The board majority also approved a single district librarian position to oversee all libraries districtwide — a move the California School Library Association's president said would fall short, telling KPBS that one district librarian won't come close to replacing the work of nine teacher librarians.
Students Describe Inconsistent Access
Students said the staffing changes meant they often couldn't gather or study in the library unless additional credentialed staff was present, and that library hours fluctuated, KPBS reported. The district countered that students generally had access to the library throughout the day, except for brief periods when a library technician was on break or at lunch.
Private text messages among members of the board's conservative majority, reported on by the station, focused on ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, reducing the number of librarians and freezing library funds. A lawsuit filed by librarians alleges the board banned books with LGBTQ+ content and retaliated against library staff who support LGBTQ+ students. Grossmont trustees have said the district does not comment on pending litigation but will defend itself fully against the claims through appropriate legal channels.
Separate Discrimination Settlement
The district's legal troubles extended beyond the library fight. Former administrator Rose Tagnesi alleged in a lawsuit that she was demoted and effectively fired for being a lesbian; the seed reporting states the district agreed to pay her more than $700,000 in a separate 2025 settlement, while KPBS separately reported the district agreed in November to pay a $1.2 million settlement to a former administrator who said she was discriminated against for being lesbian.
Stephanie Macceca is an affected librarian and president of the Grossmont Education Association. Robert Shield said the agreement focuses on the future and serves the East County community.
A Statewide Pattern of Thin Library Staffing
Grossmont's fight unfolded against a backdrop of chronically thin school library staffing statewide. Only about a quarter of California's school library spaces are staffed by librarians, and the state ranks 49th nationally in school librarian staffing, according to CalMatters, which also reported nearly 10,000 students for every school librarian in California.
The state budget has also cut $5.5 million for school libraries, a reduction set to take effect July 1, 2027. Grossmont's own enrollment has been shrinking, according to the Union-Tribune.
