rt2dz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2004
- Messages
- 5,596
Our school not only sends in an extensive list, but are very specific: Crayola Washable crayons of x size—12 boxes!?! I just asked DS how many boxes of crayons he used last year—two! When DS was in K we had to send in 8 bottles of glue. He did not use 8 bottles of glue, I’m sure. They were always using glue sticks. And he may have used all 15 of those!
I have to send in 3, 2-pack, low-odor dry erase markers for the teacher to use (kids are not allowed near the dry erase board in case they ruin it). I have to send in 3 reams of copy paper. Never, NEVER, has he come home with 1500 pieces of white-copied paper in a year; the kids get workbooks that go along with the textbook. We do not get back our scissors or rulers or anything. The whole list is somewhere around $75-$100 per child. It bugs me to death! I don’t care that things are pooled (although DS would like “cool” pencils), I care he—or anyone in the class—doesn’t use the things and it isn’t returned.
We have seriously high school district taxes, NOT counting for the other portions of my property tax (hospital district, water district, etc). The school district gets 50% of my total property tax. And for those who live in apartments (there aren’t any at our school though due to the zoning), the property owner pays their kids portions of property tax.
It’s not so much the money or the supplies, but the way they do it. If they said we need donations of copy paper (or whatever) I’d send in quite a bit—probably a whole case (or two) of copy paper. But instead they send a list, and check it off that you sent in the whole list to their specifications. If anything is labeled, it is returned to you with a note saying all supplies must not be labeled and to send in a non-labeled replacement. If you don’t (so I hear—I always send in everything as requested), you get nasty letters and your child gets to miss recess until the list is filled as requested.
What happens if the parents don’t have the money? They get it from the community center that works with the local YMCA, local businesses and all the area churches to make sure no child goes without community supplies. They are very good about this. I know we send in a $250 check every summer to purchase school supplies for those in need.
All supplies go into a grade level storage closet (10-12 classes per grade, K-4th). And nothing returned? I spend a lot of time in the classroom and the supply closets, the size of a classroom are stuffed, even at the end of the year! What exactly do they do with the scissors and rulers at the end of the year? Throw them out? They’re on the list again the next year. I can imagine something being broken, but all of it? And what exactly do the teachers do with the $500 per teacher the PTO gives and the $500 the district provides for the teacher to buy “extra’s”?
In a world of tight economy and trying to go-green, you’d think they’d limit how much you need to spend and allow parents to re-use items. I mean really, do scissors have an expiration date? Why can’t we replace only what is needed to be replaced? Instead, my items are filling up a landfill instead of having a second year to be used. And when I spend my money on this stuff, it’s just something else I can’t spend it on. 22 cents or not (and I stock up every school year), it’s still adds up over the long run. I’m sure Starbucks or Marble Slab would like a little of money too!
I have to send in 3, 2-pack, low-odor dry erase markers for the teacher to use (kids are not allowed near the dry erase board in case they ruin it). I have to send in 3 reams of copy paper. Never, NEVER, has he come home with 1500 pieces of white-copied paper in a year; the kids get workbooks that go along with the textbook. We do not get back our scissors or rulers or anything. The whole list is somewhere around $75-$100 per child. It bugs me to death! I don’t care that things are pooled (although DS would like “cool” pencils), I care he—or anyone in the class—doesn’t use the things and it isn’t returned.
We have seriously high school district taxes, NOT counting for the other portions of my property tax (hospital district, water district, etc). The school district gets 50% of my total property tax. And for those who live in apartments (there aren’t any at our school though due to the zoning), the property owner pays their kids portions of property tax.
It’s not so much the money or the supplies, but the way they do it. If they said we need donations of copy paper (or whatever) I’d send in quite a bit—probably a whole case (or two) of copy paper. But instead they send a list, and check it off that you sent in the whole list to their specifications. If anything is labeled, it is returned to you with a note saying all supplies must not be labeled and to send in a non-labeled replacement. If you don’t (so I hear—I always send in everything as requested), you get nasty letters and your child gets to miss recess until the list is filled as requested.
What happens if the parents don’t have the money? They get it from the community center that works with the local YMCA, local businesses and all the area churches to make sure no child goes without community supplies. They are very good about this. I know we send in a $250 check every summer to purchase school supplies for those in need.
All supplies go into a grade level storage closet (10-12 classes per grade, K-4th). And nothing returned? I spend a lot of time in the classroom and the supply closets, the size of a classroom are stuffed, even at the end of the year! What exactly do they do with the scissors and rulers at the end of the year? Throw them out? They’re on the list again the next year. I can imagine something being broken, but all of it? And what exactly do the teachers do with the $500 per teacher the PTO gives and the $500 the district provides for the teacher to buy “extra’s”?
In a world of tight economy and trying to go-green, you’d think they’d limit how much you need to spend and allow parents to re-use items. I mean really, do scissors have an expiration date? Why can’t we replace only what is needed to be replaced? Instead, my items are filling up a landfill instead of having a second year to be used. And when I spend my money on this stuff, it’s just something else I can’t spend it on. 22 cents or not (and I stock up every school year), it’s still adds up over the long run. I’m sure Starbucks or Marble Slab would like a little of money too!
) and other supplies and I send in extras for ds class too.
I will be the first to donate to others but do not tell me what to do with the things that I pay for.
I volunteer in the classroom and help with the centers groups. Between the heavy hands with glue and the broken pencil tips and those creative minds going to town with their crayons it's a wonder how 12 glue sticks and 48 pencils are enough. In our school system the kids all have their own but the teacher keeps a basket for them to use as well. We would never make it through one session if they had to rely on their own supplies. They lose crayons, break pencils and I am afraid to think about what has happened to the glue 
