Thumbnail photo: Del Norte Reads Coordinator Terrin Musbach gives away books at the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s annual Dee-ni’ Day celebration last September. | Photo by Amanda Dockter
Del Norte Reads has lost its state funding, local library manager Phyllis Goodeill confirmed.
Citing an uncertain amount in unspent California Library Literacy Services dollars over two fiscal years, and no plan to spend those funds, the California State Library wants that money back, Goodeill told Redwood Voice Community News via email last week.
But Del Norte Reads Program Coordinator Terrin Musbach has a plan to outline for the state how the program has grown over the past nine months and how important CLLS support is for it to continue.
“This plan that I’ve made, it’s about advocating for our community,” Musbach said Monday.
Musbach, who was hired in August 2024, said that staff turnover and “then no staff” for about two years after the COVID-19 pandemic led to things being documented poorly and misreported — concerns California State Library representatives brought up during an October 2024 review of Del Norte Reads and in a subsequent report released April 7.
In its report, CSL demands the return of unspent CLLS dollars and recommends the program not participate in the state literacy program.
Musbach plans to petition the state library to let the Del Norte County Library District rejoin CLLS and reapply for that funding for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
“It can work,” she said of Del Norte Reads. “We need it and we have competent staff that can run it. We have staff that are willing to fight for it.”
Musbach said she plans to bring her proposal before the Del Norte County Library District Board of Directors at its next meeting May 12.
In its report, the CSL stated that the Del Norte County Library District has at least $54,597 and up to $63,729 in unspent CLLS dollars out of a total of $127,245 awarded for fiscal years 2022-23 and 2023-24. While not necessarily a bad thing, according to the CSL report, the Del Norte County Library Board was “unclear about how much of its grant funds it has spent and how much is remaining.”
The CSL report also cited discrepancies in information the Del Norte County Library District provided during its review and information provided in its mid-year and final reports submitted to the state library. The report also stated that verbal information Del Norte County Library staff provided to state library staff was different than what was provided during the review in October as were fund balances the library director emailed to the state on March 17, 2025.
“This suggests that at least one set of information has been reported incorrectly to the State Library,” the CSL report states.
The CSL report also states that the Del Norte County Library District hasn’t been able to provide information and documentation that “clearly illustrated how funds have been spent in support of the CLLS program.”
In addition to recommending that Del Norte Reads not participate in the state literacy program and demanding that the Del Norte County Library District return its unspent CLLS funds, the state library is also urging the library district to pay for an independent auditor — something Goodeill said the library district is doing.
CLLS funding Del Norte Reads receives varies from year to year, Goodeill said. In 2023-24, the CSL divided those dollars up into three programs — adult literacy, family literacy and English as a second language.
According to the CSL’s report, libraries are also asked to make a local contribution to their literacy program. The Del Norte County Library District’s contribution is $18,000 at the beginning of each fiscal year, Goodeill said.
The CLLS program requires libraries to spend all of their grant dollars annually. If they’re unable to expend the whole award, CLLS grants them an additional two years to spend those dollars before they revert back to the state.
In its report, the CSL states that while the Del Norte County Library District consistently submitted its mid-year and final reports for how it uses its grant funds, it struggled to complete budget modifications accurately and in a timely manner. The library district has also had to amend their final reports to account for purchases not approved by the CSL.
Del Norte Reads last received CLLS dollars during the 2023-24 fiscal year, Goodeill said. This award included $20,000 for adult literacy services and $30,000 for family literacy services.
It also received $19,420 for its ESL program, according to the CSL report. CLLS supports ESL services through one-time state funding that is required to be spent by June 30, 2026, according to the report.
In addition to the library’s contribution of $18,000, Del Norte Reads is also supported through other grants, donations and fundraisers, though Goodeill said the program hasn’t been very active in seeking outside monies lately.
She also said the reason there is unspent CLLS money is due to a lack of staff to run Del Norte Reads when she was hired in October 2021.
“I do not spend money on a program that has no staff,” she said. “This happened one [other] time where there was no literacy coordinator from July 2024 to September 2024 when Terrin started.”
According to the CSL’s report, Goodeill contacted state library staff in May 2024 to let them know that the library district wouldn’t fully expend the 2023-24 ESL monies it received. The CLS learned in July and August of that year that the library district also had unspent adult and family literacy dollars from previous fiscal years and “that they had unspent funds remaining that they had not reported to the state library.”
Del Norte Reads didn’t receive any state dollars in the 2024-25 fiscal year, Goodeill said. According to the CSL’s report, the library district asked to withdraw from receiving new family literacy services dollars as of Aug. 14, 2024, stating they had planned to spend the remaining family literacy funding from previous fiscal years.
According to Goodeill, when she was hired, though she was tasked with managing “all branch libraries,” overseeing Del Norte Reads wasn’t specifically in her job description. She said CLLS only offered one class on budgeting and it’s difficult to compare the CLLS budget to the Del Norte Reads budget.
“It has been a very frustrating time for me. I was the one who asked for help,” she said. “I invited traveling CLLS staff to help me establish a system to track purchases and the person I hired as literacy coordinator refused to cooperate and would not tell me what she was purchasing. After she was terminated it took me weeks to find invoices and merchandise she had purchased. Some of it is missing and I don’t know where it is.”
In its report, the CLS states that despite its funding challenges, and staff turnover, Del Norte Reads consistently provides services to learners “in an area with a high need for literacy education.”
According to Musbach, when she was hired, three tutors were working with nine learners. As of her last report to the Library District Board on April 14, Musbach said there are 10 tutors working with 28 learners.
Though she has tutors working with adults and with English language learners, Musbach said the only component she hasn’t expanded is the family literacy component.
“We’re working on bare bones, focused on recruiting tutors and then getting some learners,” she said. “But we have enough learners that have kids that we can start thinking about family literacy. But now, we don’t have the funding, we’re in a holding pattern.”
Musbach said the reason she wants Del Norte Reads to stay with the state literacy program isn’t just about the money — the library district can pay for the program to limp along as it currently is.
What Del Norte Reads needs is the support California Library Literacy Services offers — discounted, or, at times, free access to curricula and literacy platforms, training and education for tutors and its network of experts.
“CLLS has been around for 40 years. They know what they’re doing,” she said. “Being the rural and isolated community that we are, we need community to help make our community successful. And that’s why my first hope, and ask for them, is to please allow us to reapply. Don’t kick us out of the program.”
