As school budgets tighten, supply costs born by parents, teachers

Posted in Mom Stuff
by Lorain County Moms

Rainy Kaplan ran her fingers over rows of brightly colored school supplies, stopping at a bulletin-board border that caught her eyes. Red habanero, green jalapeno and yellow banana peppers dotted the strip, a perfect detail for her Spanish classroom at Westmont High School.

By the time she checked out at Let’s Learn in Hoffman Estates, she had racked up an $80 tab.

“I got off easy this time,” she said, eyeing the receipt.

Meanwhile, Vernon Hills mom Maria Gonzalez scoured a long school-supplies list that included typical learning tools like folders and pencils, along with five boxes of wet wipes for each of her two children, plus a pack of Lysol cleaning wipes.

“I’ve got the headache already,” she said, smiling ruefully as she browsed a Target store.

It takes a lot of supplies to run the average public school classroom, and one might assume that school’s budget to cover the costs. But in an era of cost-cutting and economizing, the ex pense is increasingly shouldered by parents and teachers, rather than just taxpayers. Teachers spend an average of $500 of their own money each year on school materials, according to a National Education Association survey, while the typical student-supplies list now includes everything from hand sanitizer to safety pins, sandwich bags to batteries.

“I’ve heard parents who were a bit resentful when they see that they have to bring or send Kleenex,” said Cinda Klickna, secretary treasurer of the Illinois Education Association and a teacher with 32 years’ experience. “But it’s just not happening that the school has the money to buy some of these things.”

The lists sometimes catch parents offguard.

Marjon Sahelijo, shopping in a Libertyville OfficeMax for her son Amon, was surprised to find headphones on the list of 7th-grade school supplies, along with what Amon called an “insane” number of pens — almost 30 in a variety of colors.

Sue Schroeder, on the hunt for supplies for her sons, 4th and 8th graders in Gurnee, said she understands parents’ frustration with long lists, but she hears from teacher friends how much they spend.

“A lot of people that don’t (know teachers) think this is ridiculous,” she said. “But it’s necessary.”

School administrators said they try to ease the financial strain for teachers and families alike.

Many schools allot from $150 to $300 per teacher for classroom expenses during the school year. Frankfort’s Summit Hill School District 161 gives each of its 250 teachers an average of $150, with an extra $100 set aside for first-year teachers, said Supt. Keith Pain. Still, parents in the south suburban elementary district contribute everything from erasers to paper towels.

“I’m not going to say our teachers don’t supplement, because they do. But we try to minimize that,” Pain said.

At Lake Louise School in Palatine, supplies lists for parents include paper plates, plastic utensils and AA size batteries.

“We provide the bare essentials,” said Mary Zarr, assistant superintendent for Palatine School District 15 Those basics — which virtually all districts give teachers — include textbooks, manuals and some office supplies. “Anything that would not be considered an extreme necessity comes out of (the teacher’s) pocket.”

Kaplan’s district will pay for such items as white notecards and manila folders, but she, like many teachers, likes to augment the classroom with creative touches that make for an inviting learning environment.

At some schools, though, teachers aren’t only ponying up for extras. When parents send their kids to class with few or no basic supplies, teachers shoulder the burden.

Celina Watts, a 4th-grade teacher at Ann Sullivan School in Prospect Heights, estimated that about five of her 23 students showed up last year empty-handed. “I don’t think most people know” that teachers often pay the rest, she said. “They think the school district just provides all that stuff.”

Despite the personal expense, most teachers don’ t their school districts, which they say are under constant pressure to cut costs.

“School districts are hurting,” Watts said. “The state of Illinois isn’t coming up with much money either.”

Sometimes, parent groups or private companies help bridge the gap. The Home and School group at Meadow Glens Elementary School in Naperville, for example, will give teachers a total of about $1,500 that it raised to help pay for supplies, said last year’s president, Christine Kilkenny.

Still, she said, “We know that doesn’t come close to what teachers actually spend.”

Naperville-based retailer OfficeMax holds an event each year to hand out supplies to teachers at 1,000 needy schools.

“As schools continue to cut on expenses, the teacher seems to be … affected the most,” said Bob Thacker, senior vice president of marketing and advertising with OfficeMax. Thacker said his wife, a teacher for 38 years, estimates she’s spent about $100,000 in her lifetime on school supplies.

“I don’t know of any other profession that expects people to provide all of their own materials,” Thacker said. “Firemen don’t provide the firetrucks.”

–By Georgia Garvey and Tara Malone, Chicago Tribune