Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the alternative is my kids not having hand soap at school, I’m happy to supply it. We can afford it, and my kids attend a Title 1 school too, so I know many of their classmates parents likely can’t. Should our tax dollars cover this stuff? Absolutely. But I think it builds school community to be willing to help provide for others.

Which district doesn't provide soap? In my 31 years teaching in an ES we always have had soap. Since we've always had soap I've never asked for hand sanitizer.

I work in Baltimore City. Prior to the pandemic, we'd run out of soap, paper towels, and sometimes toilet paper. We still run out of bottled water which we have to use because the water fountains are closed. The extra pandemic money has really helped but that's on its way out. I used to bring these things from home.

Thanks for the replies. PP here and I’m in Fairfax Co.

Why are your water fountains closed? Leftover pandemic policy?

It could have been because there is lead in the pipes and Baltimore county doesn't have the money to remediate fixing all of the pipes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If parents don’t purchase the supplies, the teachers often have to do it.

I worked in a public school that provided no supplies for teachers. I had to purchase copy paper, tissue paper, class sets of composition books, books for my classroom library, etc. I also needed basic decorations for walls and all of my own supplies (whiteboard markers, pens, etc.). I spent close to $800 a year at that school, and was still told by an administrator that I didn’t decorate my classroom enough.

I don’t work for that district anymore.

BOOKS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM LIBRARY -You truly are not very smart. All you school has to do is post or send an email out requesting books from the public/parents. Our school did this and literally hundreds of current/old/favorite great condition books were donated. We had to use the HS kids (as volunteer hours) to help us organize. There was a bin at the local HS for this too. We are in Loudoun County btw. I would have made a supplies stipend a condition of my employment.

Not everyone works in wealthy schools. Virtually none of my students have books at home. The vast majority had never been to a library.

The point is - ask your whole community - flyers at the grocery store, posts on NextDoor or DCUM, boxes places at gym entrances . Stop whining and just put the work in - it's not hard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the alternative is my kids not having hand soap at school, I’m happy to supply it. We can afford it, and my kids attend a Title 1 school too, so I know many of their classmates parents likely can’t. Should our tax dollars cover this stuff? Absolutely. But I think it builds school community to be willing to help provide for others.

Which district doesn't provide soap? In my 31 years teaching in an ES we always have had soap. Since we've always had soap I've never asked for hand sanitizer.

I work in Baltimore City. Prior to the pandemic, we'd run out of soap, paper towels, and sometimes toilet paper. We still run out of bottled water which we have to use because the water fountains are closed. The extra pandemic money has really helped but that's on its way out. I used to bring these things from home.

Thanks for the replies. PP here and I’m in Fairfax Co.

Why are your water fountains closed? Leftover pandemic policy?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind buying consumable items for my child, but it just seems weird to me how every year I'm supposed to be buying her a pair of scissors. This scissors go to school. It never come back. It's just very strange that apparently every year the teacher loses 20 to 30 pairs of scissors. I can understand losing a few pairs but 20 or 30?

Also every year the second graders learn about measuring so they have to buy rulers and bring those into school. And again it would just seem to be more efficient to buy a set of rulers for the class. I'm sure a few would get broken or lost.

They should be sending your child's supplies home but they usually just put them all together and they are shared. I always bought extra and the cheapest but decent stuff I could find to donate more for kids who can't or parents will not but usually a few weeks in would swap out some of my child's stuff with nicer things than the teacher gave as it wasn't ever ours (i.e. folders, etc).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If parents don’t purchase the supplies, the teachers often have to do it.

I worked in a public school that provided no supplies for teachers. I had to purchase copy paper, tissue paper, class sets of composition books, books for my classroom library, etc. I also needed basic decorations for walls and all of my own supplies (whiteboard markers, pens, etc.). I spent close to $800 a year at that school, and was still told by an administrator that I didn’t decorate my classroom enough.

I don’t work for that district anymore.

BOOKS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM LIBRARY -You truly are not very smart. All you school has to do is post or send an email out requesting books from the public/parents. Our school did this and literally hundreds of current/old/favorite great condition books were donated. We had to use the HS kids (as volunteer hours) to help us organize. There was a bin at the local HS for this too. We are in Loudoun County btw. I would have made a supplies stipend a condition of my employment.

Not everyone works in wealthy schools. Virtually none of my students have books at home. The vast majority had never been to a library.

The point is - ask your whole community - flyers at the grocery store, posts on NextDoor or DCUM, boxes places at gym entrances . Stop whining and just put the work in - it's not hard.

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind buying consumable items for my child, but it just seems weird to me how every year I'm supposed to be buying her a pair of scissors. This scissors go to school. It never come back. It's just very strange that apparently every year the teacher loses 20 to 30 pairs of scissors. I can understand losing a few pairs but 20 or 30?

Also every year the second graders learn about measuring so they have to buy rulers and bring those into school. And again it would just seem to be more efficient to buy a set of rulers for the class. I'm sure a few would get broken or lost.

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind buying consumable items for my child, but it just seems weird to me how every year I'm supposed to be buying her a pair of scissors. This scissors go to school. It never come back. It's just very strange that apparently every year the teacher loses 20 to 30 pairs of scissors. I can understand losing a few pairs but 20 or 30?

Also every year the second graders learn about measuring so they have to buy rulers and bring those into school. And again it would just seem to be more efficient to buy a set of rulers for the class. I'm sure a few would get broken or lost.

Anonymous wrote:Haha, I just paid $250 for my kid's enrollment in HS marching band, and they still want extra donations. OP, it only gets more expensive as your kid goes through school. School supplies are cheap in comparison!

Anonymous wrote:School budgets buy the Chromebooks and smart boards. And all those developers get a break and dont have to contribute to the school coffers when they build high rises because the calculations are off and its assumed no kids live in apartment buildings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is ridiculous. Look I clearly don't think teachers should be paying for this stuff OOP and I always bring in everything that's asked for. But we pay very high taxes in MoCo and it's crazy this basic stuff isn't provided for.

I went to very average public schools growing up and we did not have to bring in any of this stuff. Nor did I hear of teachers having to make these bull purchases. It feels like schools were run in a more common sense way back then.

I lived in several "good" school districts. We used old-fashioned stuff.

I remember getting free lined, unbleached brown paper notepads, #2 pencils, fat Crayola crayon sets, and plops of white paste on a piece of paper towel. The school had communal watercolor paint sets and tempera paint in big jars.

Kleenex was not stocked in classrooms, I remember going to the office and paying 10 cents to get a tissue in 10th grade.

No glue sticks

Very little colored marker use and occasional colored pencil use. No dry erase or whiteboards. Only chalkboards.

Occasional composition notebooks. I feel like we were given these when needed.

Mostly used looseleaf lined paper until high school

No mandatory color coded folders by subject

It's almost as if times have changed. 🤯 I'm in my 50's, my parents bought school supplies.

My youngest is 24. We always had to send school supplies.

PP. I get it. I'm your age. My point was mainly...we didn't get much, but it was mostly provided. And, as things changed, and schools got more underfunded, there also emerged new categories of expensive "must haves". E.g., glue sticks, dry erase markers, disinfecting wipes.

I think there is a bit of a cultural expectation that people like to do back to school shopping and get doorbuster sales. And like to donate product. But a lot don't anymore. Post-pandemic, people have stopped doing a lot of social nicety busywork. Attitudes are definitely different.

Not underfunded. Misfunded.

Anonymous wrote:My child just entered public school and there is a list of items that we are supposed to send in, such as tissues and hand sanitizers. It is my understanding that these supplies are pooled in the classroom, so it is not the case that these supplies are for individual use.

I cannot imagine it is cost-effective for the schools to beg from the parents in this way. Moreover, --wouldn't it be more economical for the schools to buy these items in bulk? It's quite expensive and if families are poor, it is not cheap to buy lysol wipes or boxes of tissues.

Why do our school taxes not cover school supply expenses? Surely this is something that could be budgeted for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If parents don’t purchase the supplies, the teachers often have to do it.

I worked in a public school that provided no supplies for teachers. I had to purchase copy paper, tissue paper, class sets of composition books, books for my classroom library, etc. I also needed basic decorations for walls and all of my own supplies (whiteboard markers, pens, etc.). I spent close to $800 a year at that school, and was still told by an administrator that I didn’t decorate my classroom enough.

I don’t work for that district anymore.

BOOKS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM LIBRARY -You truly are not very smart. All you school has to do is post or send an email out requesting books from the public/parents. Our school did this and literally hundreds of current/old/favorite great condition books were donated. We had to use the HS kids (as volunteer hours) to help us organize. There was a bin at the local HS for this too. We are in Loudoun County btw. I would have made a supplies stipend a condition of my employment.

Not everyone works in wealthy schools. Virtually none of my students have books at home. The vast majority had never been to a library.