CITY COUNCIL SUPPORT OF S.428/H.4207: AN ACT RELATIVE TO SCHOOL LIBRARIES

How it started

Feb 26, 2026 · Proposed by Councillors McGovern, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Nolan, and Al-Zubi: a formal request from the Council to the administration. Joined at the meeting by Councillor Flaherty, added from the floor by motion.

What happened

Mar 2, 2026 · ✅ Order adopted as amended (voice vote, 9 present)

Present and voting at this meeting (9)

Ayah Al-Zubi
Burhan Azeem
Tim Flaherty
Marc McGovern
Patty Nolan
Sumbul Siddiqui
E. Denise Simmons
Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler
Cathie Zusy

Adopted by voice vote. A voice vote records the outcome, not individual positions. No member's yes or no is on the record (though a member can ask to be recorded in the negative in the minutes). Showing the members who cast recorded votes at this meeting. Rule 6 requires a roll call for spending over $50 or on any member's request; state law requires one for every vote when a member participates remotely. · photos: City of Cambridge · roster: PrimeGov roll calls, Mar 2, 2026

What’s next

⌛ No response on the docket: nothing has been filed back under this request's number. Answers sometimes arrive as other items; this ledger tracks only this one.

The document Agenda item attachment · 2 pages

🏛 This item on the city's site 📄 Download original PDF

Representative Angelo Puppolo and Senator Jacob Oliveira have sponsored a bill, An Act relative to school library standards (Bill S.428, Bill H.4207), to require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to adopt the most recent edition of academic standards for school library media programs developed by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and endorsed by the Massachusetts School Library Association (MSLA); and

The bill defines an effective school library program as one that employs certified school librarians and maintains a grade-appropriate collection that supports independent reading and inquiry, teaches information literacy and research skills for students from kindergarten to grade 12, improves reading proficiency, and integrates learning technologies across the program of study; and

The bill requires no funding but requires DESE to conduct a study every three years beginning the third year after enactment of the school library standards and the study will examine the employment of school librarians, types of school library programs offered, best practices, and recommended improvements to school library programs; now therefore be it

RESOLVED: That the Cambridge City Council go on record in support of S.428 and H.4208 and urge the Massachusetts Legislature to pass and for the governor to sign it without delay; and be it further

RESOLVED: That the City Clerk be and hereby is requested to forward a suitably engrossed copy

of this order to the Cambridge state legislative delegation on behalf of the entire City Council.

📊 From here the report is project tables and figures, which don’t survive text extraction faithfully. Read them in the original PDF.

🗓 The meeting where this was taken up: Mar 2, 2026