For years, the lists of school supplies between schools for a particular grade had the precision and range of the Iraqi Air Force. With the help of some community members who alerted us, we finally think the times they are a-changin'.
We Hear 'tings
We've heard a lot of parent complaints, but interestingly enough its mostly from parents in other school districts. One parent complained that they needed to purchase a $100+ calculator! Other people are raising eyebrows at the things we've been saying for several years: hand sanitizer, santizing wipes, etc.
"The antibacterial wipes, certain brand of pencils, paper that doesn't tear out on the sides, a gift card to Walgreens -- it says it's for photo processing," [reading from second-and third-grader’s lists]. "I know that there's probably a reason for those items, I don't know what it is, and it's probably way too much information to explain on a half-sheet of paper."Source: http://www.channel3000.com/education/28902508/detail.html
---One shopper
What's Gone Baby Gone?
What has noticeably disappeared from the class supply lists? How about Kleenex, Disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer, and reams of copy paper?!!! Also missing are ziploc bags, paper plates, napkins, and plastic utensils. That's huge, people! As we've said all along, these are essential supplies (we, some of 'em anyway) that should be built into the basic budget. The community will never have a problem paying for essential school supplies. Where we have a problem is with ridiculous raises and other non-sense spending.The Basic Issue
Our issue is a simple one. The school district should be providing basic supplies required by kids to participate and learn in class. School district budgets are 80% salaries. Instead of spending money on candy and magazine subscriptions with the other 20%, we should be spending tax dollars on supplies the teachers and kids need. If the district will continue to allow/support a candy and non-nutrional food-based reward system, then at least the taxpayers should not be burdened with it. Those costs should be borne by SCOs and perhaps the SP Education Foundation. Oh...wait....they don't want to spend their funds on those items? Then maybe we should be doing something differently.
What Can A School District Do in Tight Economic Times?
As the country teeters again on the edge of recession, parents' pockets are empty. Why make these parents pay for supplies that should be basic classroom equipment? Teachers' pockets are a lot lighter this year. Not that they should EVER have had to pay for their own classroom supplies, but now more than ever that needs to end. It's OUR job to provide kids and teachers with what they need. Teachers' jobs are to be reasonable with respect to what's needed. Monitoring that is the role of building principals and Leadership Teams.
Can We Improve On Our Success?
Maybe some of the standardized supplies could be tweaked a little bit. For instance, the number of glue sticks required this year for grades 2 and 3 in each school exceeds the highest number required by ANY school last year.
We still believe that the ultimate goal should be to use the buying power of the school district to purchase these supplies at a vastly discounted rate and provide school supply packages to students at cost. This could be done as part of the Ready-Set-Go experience. We're certain that parent/community volunteers could be solicited to help store and re-package supplies. What better form of community engagement than something that helps the whole community? We believe we could get there, but we'd need 4 votes on the school board to direct administration to do it.
Click this link to see how far we've come with respect to School Supply Lists
Posts
