MILL HALL — The Keystone Central School District is not removing any of its school libraries, though the number of librarians district-wide is being reduced from four to one next school year.

Over the weekend, social media was ablaze with many who heard the potential of the district potentially closing libraries and removing its entire library staff.

However, according to Superintendent Dr. Francis Redmon, this is not true.

“To be clear, we are not closing libraries in any of our schools or restricting student access or ability to check out books,” Redmon told The Express.

Redmon stressed the district knows librarians are an important part of the district.

“We know that librarians are important to our students, our schools and our district, and in the best-case scenario we would have librarians in all of our buildings. KCSD, much like many other districts in our area and the commonwealth, has decided to change how our students access our libraries and the books and materials within those spaces,” Redmon said. “The costs of providing our students with robust learning experiences are increasing far faster than the revenues we receive from state and local sources.”

With upcoming staff retirements, Redmon said the district will be making adjustments in the future.This will include the reduction of its library staff from four to one district-wide librarian.

“With a few of our current staff retiring this year, we can provide options for our current librarians to move to other positions within the district,” he said. “At the same time, to ensure compliance with best practices and state regulations regarding libraries in public schools, we will maintain a lead librarian who will oversee all of the district libraries.”

Much like is currently in place, Redmon said the district will lay out a schedule for students in each building to have access to their libraries.

“To ensure students continue to have access to books to check out, students will have scheduled time in the libraries similar to what they have now,” he said. “Students will have the opportunity to choose books, check out books, and utilize libraries for reading.”

The staffing change and new library schedule will be implemented in the 2025-2026 school year.