Kids school supplies

[monkeymama07]

Originally Posted by luvsviola Most of the private schools around here use tuition money to pay teacher salaries. The private school that DD went to for preschool (preschool-12th grade) sends out a spreadsheet of the budget, and I know that there is not a dime in there anywhere to cover supplies. Their supplies fee covers things like art supplies and gym equipment.

Im not complaining I was just surprised

The teacher seems awesome, the school seems to be an awesome school (hes attended the same school at preschool level in a different location). it'll cost about 14,000 for the year plus whatever we send in or have to buy through out the year. I just didn't expect anything being needed beyond the basic book bag and uniform. but thats because thats all we provided at the other place for preschool

[luvsviola]

Originally Posted by monkeymama07 Im not complaining I was just surprised The teacher seems awesome, the school seems to be an awesome school (hes attended the same school at preschool level in a different location). it'll cost about 14,000 for the year plus whatever we send in or have to buy through out the year. I just didn't expect anything being needed beyond the basic book bag and uniform. but thats because thats all we provided at the other place for preschool

I'll bet at some time during the year, they'll send out the budget. It was definitely eye-opening to me. DD's school was $7,000 for elementary and $10,000 for HS (it is extremely small--only about 40 kids, so staff costs are high). I was shocked to see how little was budgeted for different things, and then the reality of life costs of other things. Even as a teacher, I hadn't thought about some of the facilities costs that really are expensive.

[CaliRoll]

DS starts kindy tomorrow and we weren't given a supply list at orientation last week. The teacher did ask for help with non-sugary snacks like graham crackers, plus Kleenex and Clorox wipes, but that was it. My niece is one kindy classroom over and her teacher issued a brand-specific list of snacks and verbally asked for organic.

Granted, we are in higher income, single-school district. The county district keeps trying to absorb our school but the parents are fighting tooth and nail to prevent it. We had to show proof at enrollment that we live in the district because so many people try to sneak in, LOL. We specifically bought our house in this neighborhood so our kids could attend this school.

My SIL teaches at a school that is the polar opposite. It's all low income. I'm not even sure if they bother sending supply lists home.

If they did give us a list, we'd buy everything plus extras, just in case there are kids who can't. I plan on asking DS1's teacher to let me know if he needs anything.

[cmarsh31]

Sent my $35 in to school in June, show up next week and pick up the box (school doesn't start til after Labor Day) - partnership with Staples & the PTA (and I think the PTA might get a bit out of it as a fundraiser too)! Everything is purchased in bulk. It might not be as cheap as following the fliers for the entire month and making trips to multiple stores, but close enough for what it saves in $ and time.

And yes, as a teacher, 14 years ago I had a $200 budget for my classroom for all my supplies (including anything beyond a copy of the one text book - didn't even get a teacher's edition some years). Over the course of time and budget constraints, that fell to $50, then $0. Overhead markers & overhead sheets (white boards yeah, they're JUST putting them in now), kleenex, pens, pencils, everything was out of pocket.

The only way to get money for teacher supplies, at this point, unfortunately, is to raise taxes more. We're cutting entire foreign languages in our district, there's no way to provide supplies for classrooms.

One of my favorite ways to help the classroom is when the bookfair comes - we can either give a gift certificate to the sale or purchase a book from a request list.