Tutoring at the new library: four study rooms, two students max, and no money changing hands
With a new library building weeks from opening, the Library Board spent much of Monday's meeting working through a draft policy governing tutors — who has increasingly used library tables as a de facto classroom. Library Director Damon proposed confining tutoring to four reservable study rooms and three non-reservable booth areas, capping sessions at two students, requiring a library card to book a room, and ending sessions 15 minutes before closing.
“No financial transactions umbrella regardless of whether it's cash or electronic and anything like that needs to be done outside of the library.”— A Library Board member, on the draft tutoring policy
The most emphatic piece of the draft was financial: no payments of any kind inside the building. "No financial transactions umbrella regardless of whether it's cash or electronic and anything like that needs to be done outside of the library," one board member said. Damon framed the overall approach as supportive but hands-off — the library wants to encourage education, he said, but is not responsible for liability or for supervising anyone's tutoring session.
The board also wanted the policy tied explicitly to the library's unattended-children rules, so a paid tutor cannot serve as a stand-in guardian for a young child. The two-student cap, Damon said, is meant to keep the rooms from turning into classes. The draft borrows from Marin County's policy but drops any residency or student-status restriction, and tightens the county's three-student limit to two.
No vote was taken. Staff was directed to return with a formal policy for the board to adopt at a future meeting, with acknowledgment built into the online reservation system as a checkbox and backed up by posted signage rather than a long written contract.