CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi city leaders and Flour Bluff ISD officials met Monday to address community concerns about reduced operating hours at the Janet F. Harte Library, with about 70 residents attending the public meeting.
In July, the city and FBISD mutually decided to reduce the library's hours from 44 to 28 hours per week, due to Education Code 61, a state law designed to enhance safety and security for students and staff in Texas public schools.
"The school district has explained that the state law has been profoundly changed to protect the students, and we all agree with that. But because of that, it creates significant issues with co-locating entities," Mark Scott said.
Scott is an at-large councilman who participated in the meeting.
"So, there were 70 people there and we just listened," Scott said.
The hour reduction has affected library staffing, with some employees moving to the Garcia Library on the Southside. However, City Manager Peter Zanoni explained the Garcia Library operates differently despite being located next to Kaffie Middle School.
"The district was able to take their entire library and put it into the school. That library is just a city library on a school campus," Zanoni said.
City leaders acknowledged the community's demand for library services and discussed potential solutions.
"There were some great ideas about what we could do like, 'if we can't be open all the time, can we have a window that people can come pick up books?'" Scott said.
Zanoni floated the idea of building a stand-alone library in Flour Bluff as a long-term solution.
"The city manager did discuss it with the group. The idea is that we put it on the bond election in 2026," Scott said.
If approved, Scott said the library build process would take approximately four years to complete.
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