District librarian role is a ‘whole new adventure’ for Monica VanTuyle
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
By BRAD HEINEMAN
Clinton Local
As the current school year winds down and nears the start of summer break, students districtwide across Clinton Community Schools have benefited in some way, shape or form from the addition of a district librarian — responsible for managing Clinton’s school library system.
Such a leadership role has been vacant from Clinton schools for a handful of years until the district found itself a qualified, local candidate right before the 2025-26 school year got underway almost eight months ago.
Monica VanTuyle stepped into the district librarian role only a matter of days before the current school year began. Her transition got off to a quiet beginning, she admitted, because she still needed to figure out some of her classroom instruction curriculum.
“I needed to get an understanding of what’s going on, and the kids needed me on the first day of school,” VanTuyle explained during a recent interview with The Clinton Local.
With 30-plus years of teaching experience — most of that accumulating during her time as a seventh grade English teacher at Allen Park Middle School — VanTuyle described her district librarian role with Clinton schools as a “whole new adventure” as well as a way for her to reinvent herself and her career in education.
As part of that reinvention effort, VanTuyle, 54, said she applied for a media specialist position with Allen Park schools but was ultimately not selected. So she took a stab at retirement following the conclusion of the 2024-25 school year — which also meant vacating her trustee seat on the Clinton Board of Education.
Even though she retired for a short amount of time, VanTuyle said, she wasn’t completely ready to put a bow on her career in education.
“The opportunity to teach here and work here has been really cool,” she said of coming out of retirement and joining Clinton schools. “…I’m super excited that they keep the libraries as functional as they are.”
With her teaching certification and a master’s degree as a reading specialist in hand, VanTuyle makes sure she is visible each school day at every district building on Clinton’s campus. Her days start at the elementary level, then she’ll venture over to the middle school, return to the elementary school for an afternoon class, and will arrive at the high school around seventh hour.
It might seem like a lot of moving throughout campus, but VanTuyle said the structure of being at each building allows her to be visible as the district librarian.
Multiple students — especially the kindergarteners — refer to VanTuyle as “Library Lady.”
“(Kindergarteners) are so enthusiastic and curious about everything,” she said. “And they want to share everything with you. I’ve never had so many hugs.”
But even with an up-to-date teaching certification and a Master’s degree, that’s still not enough credentialing according to the state of Michigan for someone to work as a school librarian.
In order to meet those state specifications, VanTuyle is in the process of earning her librarian certification, enrolling herself in classes at Wayne State University.
‘It’s so good to have her here’
Clinton Community Schools employs three librarians across its district buildings — one at the elementary level, one for the middle school and another for the high school. And while each of the libraries function on their own, VanTuyle helps bring an added presence to the innerworkings of the libraries.
She assists with book ordering and processing, comprehending copyright laws and restrictions, and acting as a liaison between the library and each building improvement team. She’s also part of the reading team, which fuels a push for added literacy efforts as the state of Michigan starts to enforce new reading requirements for school districts.
She’s also leading a kindergarten library class at Clinton Lower Elementary School. It’s the first time in her teaching career that she’s been instructing such a young age group.
“I’ve never dealt with elementary (students) at all,” she said. “I taught middle school for all that time. So my youngest (students) were 11 years old.”
She’ll also be taking on technology skills that will aid students in literacy comprehension.
“It’s so good to have her here,” commented Laura Desmet, library aide at Clinton Elementary School. “It was very difficult not to have an admin in our library system.”
As of the 2024-25 school year, Michigan had more than 500 certified school librarians, which is a vast drop from the 1,400 that worked at schools almost 20 years ago, VanTuyle shared.
“Over 90% of public schools (in Michigan) lack a full-time certified librarian,” she said. “…They just have a commitment here (at Clinton) to making sure that libraries are staffed, somebody is here every day, and that I’m just kind of everywhere.”
Shelly Evans is the library assistant at Clinton Middle School, and Dara O’Regan is the high school’s library assistant.
District librarian role strengthens literacy supports
When Clinton schools posted the job opening for a district librarian, Superintendent Kevin Beazley said it was a strong fit for VanTuyle. She agreed.
“I have a very vested interest in this school and community,” she said. “We actually moved back to Clinton from Allen Park so that we could raise our kids here.”
That would have been back in 2005. Prior to then, VanTuyle and her husband, Tom, relocated to Allen Park for their employment. Being back home allowed the VanTuyle children to be fifth generation graduates from Clinton Community Schools.
Beazley said the district librarian role is an important one for Clinton “as we continue strengthening literacy supports across all buildings; elementary, middle and high school, and expanding that work into preschool.”
“This position helps ensure access to high-quality, grade-level appropriate texts, supports consistency across buildings and directly strengthens our reading teams and MTSS (multi-tiered system of supports) literacy work,” Beazley said in an email. “It is also an important piece as we continue implementation tied to PA-146 and dyslexia-related literacy expectations, ensuring students and staff have the resources they need to support strong literacy outcomes districtwide.”
“We have a lot of competition to compete against screentime,” added VanTuyle. “Anything that we can do to engage (students) with reading and not screentime is what we’re trying to do.”
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