Our PTO does not help out with school supplies in any way. I was thinking of doing one of these school supply programs. There are pros and cons to them yes if you go to Walmart and search all over the store for all 3 kids lists you can save money but if I went through the program I would save tons of time searching for those few stupid items on the list that you can neve get because everyone else needs it.

Cindy

I missed this post the first time around.

Although many parents might like the idea of shopping for supplies, I would guess that many others would like the convenience of not worrying about finding the right-sized protractor in late August. We also have some parents who like to shop and would probably be willing to get dozens of whatever is needed.

It would require the cooperation of the school and teachers to get the lists early so the items could be priced per grade and orders could be in before the last day of school.

At our school we have started something we call a Crayon Closet. Our students are still responsible for a list of supplies, but if their parents can't afford or just don't send in the supplies then the teacher can go into the CC to get it. We also open up a couple of times a year just to help replenish classrooms. Our CC stocks construction paper, crayons, markers, glue sticks, copier paper, folders, paint, hand sanitizer, lysol, kleenex, paper clips, post it notes, highlighters, pens, pencils, staples, tape, etc. We usually spend about $2000 in the course of a year to stock it. We opened it last year with a $1000 grant from Walmart. The teachers love it.

Neat idea - love it. BUT .... I can't believe anyone would spend nearly $40 on just that stuff.

Not if there's a discount store (Target, Wal-mart, K-Mart, etc.) within 30 miles. During August, our local store has 24 pk Crayola crayons for 50 cents, etc., 10 pocket folders for $1, etc. All "lost leaders", I'm sure, but I spent only $25 total for my 7th grader and my 1st grader this year - and that included extras like push pins, locker mirror, etc.

I do think that it would be nice to have a few of these for mid-year newcomer students (often foster kids), because the sales would then be over, and it's such a special box, etc. But it's a luxury our school can't afford. Instead we do have a supply cabinet fully stocked with all of these items, and we pull them out as needed for newcomers, etc.

I would never pay for all the school supplies. I don't care how poor a school system is - there is money allotted for supplies. Our organization tries to help out with mini-grants and the purchase of supplemental items but never ALL the supplies.

Originally posted by <boysmom>:
I actually enjoy some things about shopping for school supplies (I have that fetish for new crayon boxes too!), but I've got one pet peeve. Every year there's one item on the list that doesn't exist under the listed specifications. You know, like the two-pocket folder WITHOUT brads only comes in four colors at one store, while your list calls for five different colors, so you go to another store, where all the folders have brads, and another, where the color you need only has one pocket . . . This year it was the "two blue highlighters." I went to three stores and couldn't find any that sold BLUE highlighters in anything but a four-color multi-pack, which meant I finally had to give in and buy 8 highlighters to have the 2 required.

Does anyone else think this sets up a negative impression of the school for first-time parents? And would it really be so difficult to require the teachers to actually go to a store and make sure the items exist before the list is sent out? I know it must sound like I'm nuts for getting so worked up over this, but I swear, it happens EVERY YEAR!

I totally agree. We had our first school supply pack purchase through our parent's organization. Our school is K-8, and we only offered it K-3 because of the riduculous size of the higher grades' lists. The eighth grade list was well over $100. I asked the teachers if they ever shopped for the things they required and they said no. They explained that the things on the list were easy to find....... an up hill battle if ever I saw one. So we did K-3 and those that participated loved it. The profit was $230 from about 15 orders. I purchased a lot of the crayons, glue sticks, etc. at that time as well to set aside. I created a parents' organization bookstore that will sell these (cheaply purchased) items throughout the year at regular retail prices. Parents don't have to run out to buy a glue stick and they pay a fair price. We purchased at the back to school prices and keep a profit. We'll also have supplies with which to start next year. We will probably extend the orders through sixth grade. We also used plastic folders as they are very durable.