I emailed the school board, and superintendent, and the rest, school supplies

[Janeway]

A couple weeks ago, I volunteered as a back to school fair. A lot happened at it, but also, kids who were in need and had special tickets for that got to go in to a special area to receive a back pack with school supplies. The school supplies were not enough really. Teachers in the poorer schools often end up having to fund the remaining supplies while teachers in the wealthier areas have excess and take it home. 

 

I really hope we can have some change here!

 

I already emailed the email. But here is the basic body of it. I hope I did not sound stupid or ramble or otherwise.

 

________________________________________________________

Hello,

I am writing regarding a school supply issue that I have seen. Simply put, the school supply lists at the elementary levels tend to be for much more than can be used in a year. By the end of the school year, teachers are drowning one extra supplies. I have had family, friends, and neighbors work as teachers in this district. Upon asking what happened to these extra supplies at the end of the year, I get told by most teachers that these supplies are going to their churches for mission trips and boxes they send out of the country. At least one teacher (my former next door neighbor) would sell off the spare supplies at her garage sale. I have had years where I provided 48 pencils and my child used one or two, and I got none back. This also applies to things like scissors, paper, etc.

Then let’s move to August 5 of this year. An amazing and wonderful event was held where children were given supplies to start their new year, as well as a variety of other services. This is wonderful! However, it was clear that the children needed more supplies. A child would receive a pair of scissors, one thing of paper, a handful of folders, and no spirals. The usual school list asks for 2-4 boxes of crayons, 48 pencils, several spirals of a variety of colors, and so on.

I want to propose that we pass a rule that makes it so that all school supplies brought to the campus by parents must remain at the school, returned to parents, or donated for the Back to School fair. It would be great to set up a space at the district where spare supplies can be kept for any teacher to pick up as needed for classes, and any student to request and receive as needed. Of course, if teachers wish to return supplies to the students, that is wonderful too. But it is not appropriate for supplies to be removed from the school by an employee for re-selling or personal use or mission trips, etc. It is especially not ok when we have so many kids right here, in our own community, who are needy and could really use these supplies. In wealthier schools, teachers are running over with supplies at the end of the year In poorer schools, teachers are having to buy supplies for their students or making due without. 

I think this is a wonderful idea. I hope to hear back from every single member of this board.

 

edited to add: I can already see one error..I should have said donated to the district for needy students, or something that that effect, instead of just to the back to school fair.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Janeway

[ashfern]

I think that's a good idea to keep the extra supplies in a community area of the school for the use of all the teachers.

[AngieW in Texas]

I agree with you that donated supplies should not be leaving the school district. There should be a way for teachers throughout the district to requisition supplies from a central storeroom. While elementary school teachers often get a lot of things on their supply lists, the supplies drop off substantially once you get to middle school and high school level. Those teachers have to make up for not receiving anything on their supply lists with their own money.

 

One issue that I see is that the teachers at schools in better economic areas actually get the materials on their supply lists while the teachers at schools in poorer areas spend a lot of their own money to make sure that their students have basic supplies. I'm at a Title I school. I ended up buying the composition notebooks for the majority of my students because they never would have had one otherwise. I had also asked my students to get folders, but didn't end up using the folders because after spending a ton of money on notebooks for my students, I didn't want to buy folders too. 

 

I teach high school science, so my supply list was very simple:

composition notebook dedicated for this class only, for your own use

two pocket folder with brads dedicated for this class only, for your own use

pencil and eraser, for your own use

some paper for your own use, lined or unlined

one box of kleenex for the class supply (One student brought one box. I supplied all the rest of the kleenex for my classroom.)

 

The consumables I bought for my classroom (several hundred dollars worth):

pencils (and boy did they complain about my little golf pencils)

eraser tops

glue sticks

tape

dry erase markers (to use on the dry erase board class set that I also bought, but the boards aren't consumable and the markers are)

paper

composition notebooks

kleenex

 

This doesn't count the materials that I bought for several labs and demonstrations we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. It also doesn't count all the supplies I bought that aren't consumable, like scissors and dry erase boards.

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2017 by AngieW in Texas

[happi duck]

I'm glad you spoke up.

 

It bugs me that teachers sell supplies or donate them to their churches.

 

As a former public school teacher I am angry that they steal from their students.

 

All it takes is putting names on supplies and sending them home at the end of the year. Let the people who actually own the items decide to donate them, sell them or use them!

[QueenCat]

I'm sorry to hear that you've discovered more teachers donating to mission trips. It seemed like it was a minor problem when you first found out, with just a couple of your kids teachers. Now it sounds like it is more widespread. I hope you get quick responses from the school board.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Just an editorial note: Consider making it much, much shorter. Memo to email length, not a long letter.

[nixpix5]

Glad you did this. I always wondered about this too. When my kids were in private school the supplies were always sent home at the end of the year. They had us label every individual item with our kids name or initials.

 

My niece's aunt on her mom's side is a teacher. She took my niece while visiting to her classroom (she was setting it up for the start of the year) and gave her a TON of school supplies she said was left over from the previous year. I couldn't help thinking that those came out of someone's hard earned money. It just doesn't make sense. It seems inventory should happen and kids should only purchase what is needed. Better yet, free public education should be free and that should be in a school's budget. I worked with a young parent of 3 kids who had to take supply funds out of her food budget. Not right :(

[J-rap]

Let us know what you hear!

[Guest]

Make it much shorter and include that you can't afford to donate excess supplies, whether they will be used in the classroom or not and you want a receipt for tax purposes if your child is going to be penalized if you do not donate the extras.

 

Many people do not donate when their supply list forces donations that aren't used. And they don't donate when back to school sales aren't going on. And they aren't happy when composition boks come home at the end of the year with less than 20% of the pages used.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Heigh Ho

[Janeway]

Let us know what you hear!

Already..I have heard from two people!

 

One is a board member and a mom who has seen the same thing I have seen. She thinks my idea is great and is going to look in to getting it going. The other one I heard from is one of the assistant superintendents. He was not aware that school supplies are just going home with teachers. He wants them to stay on campus. He loves my idea and is going to look in to it too. 

[Rebel Yell]

Already..I have heard from two people!

 

One is a board member and a mom who has seen the same thing I have seen. She thinks my idea is great and is going to look in to getting it going. The other one I heard from is one of the assistant superintendents. He was not aware that school supplies are just going home with teachers. He wants them to stay on campus. He loves my idea and is going to look in to it too.

 

AWESOME!

[Bootsie]

If teachers are taking supplies home, reselling supplies, or sending them on mission trips, it sounds as if one problem is that the school is collecting too many supplies to begin with.  I find it a bit alarming that a school board member has seen this happening herself and did not move to put a stop to it before you brought it up. 

[QueenCat]

If teachers are taking supplies home, reselling supplies, or sending them on mission trips, it sounds as if one problem is that the school is collecting too many supplies to begin with.  I find it a bit alarming that a school board member has seen this happening herself and did not move to put a stop to it before you brought it up. 

 

Typically, a school board member can't act alone. She may have known that she wouldn't have support, for whatever political reason there might be. But now that they've received a complaint, she can now bring it up in committee more easily.

[Kanin]

Great letter - it's insane that supplies from a PUBLIC school should be donated to mission trips rather than to the school. It doesn't even sound legal.

[Bootsie]

Typically, a school board member can't act alone. She may have known that she wouldn't have support, for whatever political reason there might be. But now that they've received a complaint, she can now bring it up in committee more easily.

A school board member should be acting as a leader.  If a teacher takes home student supplied materials and sells them in a garage sale, that is an ethical violation, imo.  A school board member should not wait until a member of the community complains about that.  

[Catwoman]

I'm sorry to hear that you've discovered more teachers donating to mission trips. It seemed like it was a minor problem when you first found out, with just a couple of your kids teachers. Now it sounds like it is more widespread. I hope you get quick responses from the school board.

Yes! I remember the old thread about this and I thought it was only one teacher who was donating to the mission trips, but it sounds like somehow Janeway has discovered that MOST teachers are doing that, and at least one is selling the extra supplies at her personal garage sale.

 

I have never heard of such a thing, and it's good that she notified the school board about it.

[QueenCat]

A school board member should be acting as a leader.  If a teacher takes home student supplied materials and sells them in a garage sale, that is an ethical violation, imo.  A school board member should not wait until a member of the community complains about that.  

 

Sometimes it's hard to convey what I mean in this format. Yes, a board member should be a leader. But often, in order to move forward, it has to be approved by a vote of the board. And even if most are in agreement that it's an issue, they have to look at all of their issues and tackle them in order of priority.