ESCONDIDO -- In the last three years, Bernardo Elementary School's library technician has helped make hundreds of kids avid readers, hosted guest authors and increased the number of books checked out per student to close to 50 books a year, parents say.

Renee Hanvey is a "two-thumbs-up librarian," as one student said last week.

And that is why hundreds of parents, students and some staff members are waging an emotional campaign, complete with student and parent petitions and a barrage of phone calls and e-mails to district officials, to keep her at Bernardo next year.

"I am sure that other librarians around the school district do wonderful things for their schools, but do they do that much?" Gina Conkle, a Bernardo parent said last week. "When you find some who want to extend themselves, that's just a gem. And you want to keep that."

The district plans to move Hanvey to Conway Elementary and Rock Springs Elementary schools next year, the district's Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Bob Leon said Wednesday.

She is one of eight elementary library technicians who will split their time between 16 of the Escondido Union School District's elementary schools beginning in the fall.

Each librarian will have two schools that they serve, instead of one school apiece like they had this year.

The school board decided to consolidate and cut in half the number of library technicians for the 2008-09 school year as a way to reduce spending in the face of about $14.4 million in budget cuts.

As a result, Leon said, four elementary librarians, including Hanvey, were moved off of their home campuses.

"I don't see any reason to move me. I wasn't laid off," Hanvey said. "Our students and our families shouldn't be disrupted because of a decision made by the district."

Leon said district officials have given much thought to their decision, and that petitions and phone calls would not change it.

In making the decision on who should go where, the district considered many factors, including the librarians' seniority, and tried to make sure that the library technicians were working on two campuses that fed into the same middle school, he said.

Rock Springs and Conway have students that go on to Rincon Middle School. Bernardo's students graduate to Bear Valley Middle School.

"The decision (to move Hanvey) was made, and we believe at this time it to be in the best interest of the district," Superintendent Jennifer Walters said. "I certainly understand that it's Bernardo kids' and Bernardo parents' preference that they not have a change."

Students' and parents' concerns, officials say, have been expressed clearly in speeches during last month's board meeting, and phone calls and letters.

Dozens of Bernardo parents and students, though, said they have no plans to cease their fight.

A petition signed by 200 parents has been turned in to district officials, and copies are being distributed for additional supporters, Bernardo parent Brenda Townsend said.

A staff petition and four different student petitions also are making their way around campus, Hanvey proponents said.

"She's really a great librarian and we don't want her to go, because this would heartbreak a lot of kids," 10-year-old Matthew McPherson, a fourth-grader who collected 32 student signatures on a petition asking that Hanvey stay at Bernardo.

"I am going to take this to them," Matthew added, holding up the petition.

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.