One month after the Baltimore County Public Library’s CEO fired 14 part-time librarians, the library’s board announced that those jobs will be protected — and the CEO is the one out of a job.

At a board meeting this week, library board president Yara Cheikh reiterated that the board will abide by a 2019 policy that the part-time positions will be phased out through attrition. When the part-time librarians retire or move on, they will not be replaced, but they have no reason to fear layoffs, Cheikh said.

The board also announced plans to look for a new library leader after it parted ways with CEO Sonia Alcántara-Antoine earlier this month. The new leader, though, will not be the CEO. The title will revert to executive director, which it had been for decades before Alcántara-Antoine asked for the change.

The board also promised to resume its previous practice of seeking feedback from staff.

Cheikh said the board used to get monthly reports from library staff, but had not gotten that feedback in several years. Now that the staff is unionized, Cheikh said, the board will receive a monthly report from union representatives.

The board also pledged to resume an anonymous staff survey about conditions and morale at the libraries. Cheikh said such a survey had been conducted in the past, but not recently.

“We are reinstating it,” she said.

Cheikh declined to specify whether the lack of staff feedback was connected to Alcántara-Antoine‘s leadership.

But some library staffers said the former CEO preferred a top-down approach, and many felt they were not heard. That situation prompted two staff members to attend an October board meeting and implore the board to address a bedbug problem at the North Point branch, where librarians had reported seeing the pests in large numbers.

“The actions we took demonstrate our commitment to both BCPL staff and the community,” Cheikh said. “I think the board is excited to move forward and see what the new year brings.”

Cheikh is among the board members who visited various branches to speak with staff about issues they were facing following the October meeting.

The board has not yet posted its job announcement for a new leader. In the interim, though, three library officials will take turns leading the system. They include Ann Beegle, chief of external affairs; James Cooke, chief operations officer, and Erin Baker, chief public services officer. Baker was just hired from Toledo, Ohio, and will start next month.

Anita Bass, president of IAM Local 4538, which represents some library staff, praised the board for making positive changes and listening to employees. She had called the layoffs “embarrassing, humiliating and dehumanizing.”

After the layoffs, library staff and union members from other systems showed up at a board of trustees meeting with signs demanding that the board fire Alcántara-Antoine, the library’s first Afro Latina CEO and a huge part of the system’s push to be more inclusive in a fast-changing county. Baltimore County is about a third Black, with large immigrant populations and fast-growing Latino, South Asian and Jewish communities.

Alcántara-Antoine laid off the staff over Zoom. Some librarians had only an hour to pack their belongings in trash bags before being escorted out. Many had worked at the library for decades. After criticism from the board and elected officials, Alcántara-Antoine reinstated the positions, apologized and vowed to “make it right.” But Bass said, for her members, the only thing that would make it right was for the CEO to leave.

Alcántara-Antoine has not returned calls seeking comment.

Lauri Shaw, one of the reinstated librarians, praised the board for supporting its staff and listening to the outcry.

“It’s nice to go into the holiday season knowing our jobs are secure,” she said. “I’m hoping that this whole situation will be something that the Baltimore County Library system can learn and grow from.”