Thrifty teachers

Sand Mountain Reporter

Thrifty teachers

By Elizabeth Summers
The Reporter

Published November 24, 2009

Crossville Elementary School teachers are thrifty – by necessity. First-grade teacher Tina Wilks had to limit her students to one feather each for a recent Thanksgiving pilgrim and Native American hat project.

“It’s been hard. We are trying to make what we have last as long as possible,” Wilks said.

Teachers had, in the past, received instructional supply funds annually to pay for art and craft supplies, books, games, learning materials and incidentals, such as staplers and paper cutters.

During the 2008-09 school year, supply funds were cut from $525 per teacher to $320 per teacher. In the current 2009-10 school budget, funds were completely cut from the state school budget.

Some school systems do not have funds to give teachers supply money from local funding sources.

In Crossville, teachers were fortunate to receive a $50 Wal-Mart gift card from Sen. Lowell Barron.

“The biggest thing is if we don’t have the funds to buy what we need, we have to buy it using money from our pockets,” said Crossville first-grade teacher Stacey Sanders.

“Right now, we can’t afford to do that anymore. Our budgets for our own families are stretched to the limit.”

Teachers say they try to buy locally when possible.

“The gift cards are nice, but we try to buy in bulk when we can. It is less expensive that way and we can stock up and share with other teachers,” Wilks said.

“In the past, we have been able to take care of buying lunches or providing snacks for children who may not have been able to afford a meal or snack. We have had to stop doing that too.”

Teachers, including Wilks and others have scaled back holiday arts and crafts projects in an effort to stretch what supplies they have on hand.

Wilks and Sanders said they use any available funds to purchase incidentals and needed supplies.

“It’s a lot of little things, but they all add up,” Sanders said. “People don’t realize how much we have to buy. We buy erasers for pencils, bulletin board supplies, photo developing, games ... all kinds of things.”

Albertville Elementary School Principal Mona Sheets said teachers in her building have become more creative to overcome the budget shortfall.

“A lot of our teachers are just working smarter and trying to reduce the amount they use. For example, they are having students copy work from the board instead of making individual copies,” Sheets said. “They are really making common sense decisions to reduce what they need.”

In Boaz, school officials were able to provide teachers with a smaller supply allotment.

“The state provided us with no money this year,” said Chief Financial Officer Brian Bishop. “We were able to provide our teachers with $250 each on pre-loaded purchasing cards. It is all local money.”

Teachers across the area are becoming more creative and are taking advantage of the DonorsChoose Web site to solicit donations for additional classroom materials and specialty items, such as cameras, reading centers and magazine subscriptions.

Under DonorsChoose, teachers post requests and needs online, with specific amounts listed for purchase, shipping and handling. Donors log on and pledge to pay either part or the entire purchase price. The items are then purchased and sent directly to the school and the teachers and students, in turn, respond with photos and thank you notes to the donors.

The current school year is well underway and school officials are making the best of a bad situation. But there is no light at the end of the tunnel according to projections released by the State Department of Education.

The 2008-09 Alabama education budget was $6.73 billion according to the ASDE Web site. In 2009-10, the budget was slashed by 11 percent to $5.7 billion. Projections for the 2010-11 school year already include a 7.5 proration cut.

Sanders said parents try to help by working with school officials to provide hand sanitizer and other supplies as they can. The biggest help has come from local churches in the DeKalb County area.

“They came to us and asked us what we needed the most. We had to tell them copy paper,” Sanders said.

“How did we get into this kind of a situation where churches have to provide $500 in copy paper to the public school?

“As teachers, we have cut back on everything we are doing and have tried to be good stewards of what we do have. But a lot of our children are from low-income backgrounds. Lots of people are out of work. The more children a family has in school, the more it costs them. It is hard on everyone.”