School Supplies-pay the school to get them?!?

[jenrose]

DS1 will start kindergarten next year so I decided to go onto the school districts website to see what this years list was so I could plan ahead and have everything way ahead of time. All the grade schools in the district have their own seperate list. The one we are within the 'boundaries' of says the school buys the supplies in bulk and the parents are required to give the teacher $20 to cover the cost of supplies that will be shared in the classroom. WTF? The items listed on the other schools lists in the district I could buy for less than $5 without even really trying to save!

How can they say that buying these items in bulk is saving $$. It may be saving the teachers $$ since they make the parents pay way more for it to them than I could go buy it for in the stores today!

Sorry that just shocked me and I don't understand why they are doing it this way. Does anyone else have kids in a school that does this?

[JOURDYSMOM]

no way! I would refuse! that is crazy $$

[gooseandmama]

When my youngest daughter started K5 this year, we did this...I thought about what I bought last year after the rush. I have paper & pencils, markers, notebooks, all that stuff stockpiled & I paid 10% of the original asking prices....but NOOOOOO, they want $25 & they'll buy it all for us. I think what they really want is for everything to be the same for all of the kids & like one of the other posters said, to get a little overage. In addition, they send a wish list home so you'll send other stuff, too. So, when I got the free wipes at Walgreens...guess where some of them went. The word has gotten around about how much I get with coupons...if they ask me to come speak like I did at church last month, their overage will be a lot more next year!!

[tmsmalley]

I think it is fair of you to call the principal now and ask him about this. Even though she starts next year, it is fair to point out that a bulk purchase should LOWER the price, not raise it. Do a little research and map out what it costs to buy this stuff full price at Target or somewhere. I'll bet even with that it is less than $20. Then surf up a teacher's supply place and see what a bulk purchase would run. Again, I'm sure you'd be way below $20. Provide the principal with the figures and ask him to explain himself. You want to nip this in the bud for next year before you get stuck with it.

And I'll bet it is so that they can pad the purchases with things like copy paper and room decorations. Those things are great, but they shouldn't come out of parent's pockets under the guise of supplies for kids.

Tess

[jenrose]

Originally Posted by tmsmalley I think it is fair of you to call the principal now and ask him about this. Even though she starts next year, it is fair to point out that a bulk purchase should LOWER the price, not raise it. Do a little research and map out what it costs to buy this stuff full price at Target or somewhere. I'll bet even with that it is less than $20. Then surf up a teacher's supply place and see what a bulk purchase would run. Again, I'm sure you'd be way below $20. Provide the principal with the figures and ask him to explain himself. You want to nip this in the bud for next year before you get stuck with it. And I'll bet it is so that they can pad the purchases with things like copy paper and room decorations. Those things are great, but they shouldn't come out of parent's pockets under the guise of supplies for kids. Tess

I think part of it is also to even out the cost for the 5th graders who need to buy more as well. I am going to be contacting the school here soon to talk about the schedules etc for next year (the K class goes a strange schedule with 2 different 'groups' going different times and I really need to get into one particular 'group' for sitter issues) and may mention it then.

[bethanyam]

In my area when this was done it covered (is spent on) much more than the child's supplies. It does cover copy paper, hand sanitizer, tissues, and things like that. I didn't mind "donating" the money because we didn't do fundraisers. I can't stand the overpriced fundraiser, I would rather just write a check directly to our school.

In our school system when we were asked for the "donation" we were point blank told that NO child would be left out if their parents couldn't/didn't want to pay the money.

Since my children have moved up in grades now we pay for our own supplies, but the school system only provide books to the students. Everything else the parents or the teachers buy. The teachers get $100/year from the board of education and $50-$100/year from the PTO. This has to cover all of the things that they need all year long.
This school does do fundraisers, and I send them back with a check to the school for whatever that I can afford at the time. But I just don't like them at all and really miss paying my $13/year at the other school.