I know, what a strange thing to debate, but I think we may have some varying opinions on this.
I picked up all of the school supplies on the list for my kids' kindergarten today. I'm seriously ticked off that it states we CANNOT put our children's names on the items, because they are dumped into a box for community use. It also states that we might have to purchase more supplies during the year due to loss or use. Now, I have no problem buying supplies for my kids, this is expected. I have a HUGE problem having to supply things like brand name scissors, 4 boxes per child of crayons, DRY ERASE MARKERS for a kindergardener, and not having any right to keep the stuff for my children's use. The list was fairly long, and some of the stuff can be re-used if we could keep them. The list gets longer each year, of course. To top it all off, I have to pay a text book fee for my kids, I don't know too many kindergardeners who have text books!!! *IF* we'd been asked to donate stuff for less fortunate children, I would have done so without complaint, but this is ridiculous!! We're also required to supply tennis shoes, I assume to keep at the school. That isn't cheap when you're talking 2 growing children, in addition to all of the other clothing and shoes they need.
I guess part of my disgust is because I teach my kids to take care of their belongings, and if they destroy them, they only have themselves to blame. If these items are for the entire classroom to use, who is accountable for loss, theft, or destruction? I don't want to be buying markers and scissors every week because a few children can't take care of their stuff. When I was in school, the expendable items were provided, we didn't have to bring our own supplies to art class. This is a public school, funded with tax dollars! All of the schools in the area are the same way, it just doesn't seem right to me. Any thoughts?

By Kate on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - 11:31 pm:

My thoughts are that I agree with you completely and it drives me crazy. My girls are in private school and so far the only thing that becomes 'community property' are the #2 pencils, and that doesn't bother me TOO much because they KEEP the pencils and don't put them back in a pot each day, but they stay at their desks. So the pencil nibblers KEEP their tooth marked pencils until they are worn down and need new ones. But all the crayons, markers, glue, etc., are the personal property of each child.

Your situation sounds much worse and I'd start a campaign against it! And I understand your concern about you buying them nice things and them keeping them nice because you've taught them properly, but now they're at the mercy of children who HAVEN'T been taught properly...grrrr.....

By Shann on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - 11:41 pm:

I so agree with you. I got my kids school list and I feel like I am suppling the whole school. I have 4 to buy for 1 in 7th who needs 4 boxes of kleenex 1 box of bandades and whole bunch of other stuff dd who is in 3rd needs nothing to much out of the ordinary but my twins who are in 1st have to have batteries 20 large glue sticks they all have to have plastic folders at 88c each and I need to get 11 of them. It is just outrages plus school clothes we are going to have to wait on clothes because school supplies wiped us out.

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 06:35 am:

I agree entirely. It's one thing to be asked to purchase extra supplies for a sharing box, but entirely something else to have to be required to buy supplies for everyone's use and not for your child's use only.

And what happens if none of a particular item is left when your child needs it?

I will bet that there will be families who don't buy the supplies - not because they can't afford it, but because they are cheap and think this is a way to get free supplies for their kids.

I'm guessing if your kids bring in their own supplies they will be confiscated and put in the communal box.

My guess is this is some misguided theory on teaching sharing. While I believe children should learn to share, that is something that comes from the child learning to want to share, not from some school-imposed principal. And are they going to keep the children from taking home something from the school supply box? What will they do when the scissors disappear and more are needed?

Is this a school policy, or something this kindergarten teacher thought up?

By Kaye on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 08:42 am:

from a teacher pont of view, thsi isn'tabout sharing, it is about classroom management. transistions with kinder are hard. the dry erase markers are for learning to write letters. the teacher will sit them in a circle with little dry erase boards. So if each kid had their own, they woul;d have to go to their cubby and get them, then go to circle, making two transistions.

so it is best if all these things are identical.

the class i sub in, has things color coordinated by table, but the table the kid is at swtiches monthly, so having to rearrange school supplies is a hassle. also in k they don't have individual desks, so were would they keep these supplies?

as far as supplies for the needy. rest assured, that is not where your stuff is going. the teacher will provide most of that out of her pocket and the pta might help out some.

even with group stuff at the end of the year, you will probably still get stuff home. but most stuff is consumable and wears out.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 08:48 am:

I understand your feelings,too, Crystal. Ginny - LOTS of schools around here do the same as Crystal's school, simply due to a lack of funds. Kids destroy all of those supplies in such a short time, especially the younger they are. Many schools just don't have the resources to continue to buy supplies all year, and all the kids need the supplies. On the other hand, you are paying for the supplies of the kids whose parents never bring in their own things either because they're lazy or can't afford to.

I taught Kindergarten in a very financially stable school corporation and ALL supplies were purchased by the school. Isn't that great? The kids were required to use "community" supplies that I purchased through the school's account. We didn't have individual supplies brought in, so the kids never knew the difference. If we ran out during the year, I just ordered more as needed.

Natalie will be attending a private preschool that's within a private elementary school. I have to pay a supply fee for her of $60. Last week I got a list in th mail of all the other supplies she needs and I was so surprised!! It was a list of about 15 lines, half of which were "2" of that item. What?! I'm wondering what the supply fee was for? I'm wondering if these supplies I have to buy are going to be for 'community' use as well. There was no mention of names on the items. If Natalie's supplies are going to be 'community', she'll probably be upset by that and I'll have to explain.

The only thing (when I taught) that I asked kids to bring in were a box of wipes and a box of kleenex. Even for those 2 items, several kids got upset when I explained that their wipes/kleenex were going in a group with all the others for everyone to share. They wanted those things to be "theirs". Wipes/kleenex, understandable. All these other supplies I don't get, but I also know that so many schools are lacking $ and that's only getting worse. It's getting more and more expensive to send your kids to PUBLIC school!

By Debbie on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 10:17 am:

Wow Deanna, $60.00! I bought school supplies yesterday, and spent $80.00 for two kids. I didn't think it was too bad. Most of the supplies that I bought, my dks will use. I think glue sticks, wide rule paper, pencils, and a few other items are placed in a communal box. The kids in the class will get more as needed. However, things like crayons, markers, scissors, protractors, rulers, and, folders, my dks will use what I purchased. I was asked to purchase just a few "additional" items, like kleenex, hand sanitizer, and zip lock bags.

I know it would bother me if I bought a lot of items that were communal for the exact reasons that you stated, Crystal. It does frustrated me some because me dks are pretty responsible with things. I had to laugh last year when my oldest's teacher sent home a note that she need more glue sticks if anyone wanted to donate them. I had purchased around 10 glue sticks when school started!! So, I am sure there are those that don't bring in the proper school supplies. I do, however, help out when I can because otherwise the teachers are stuck with buying things.

As far as the tennis shoes, I had to do this when we lived in Chicago, and the kids went to a private school. They wanted a pair of tennis shoes left at school for gym. They has just refinished the gym floor, and they said it would last longer if the kids didn't use shoes that had dirt, salt, etc on them. I will say, that I could see where they were coming from because all the salt that is used on the roads does ruin floors.

By Yjja123 on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 02:11 pm:

We had those lists when my kids attended public school. I didn't mind so much when they were little. When Jessica was in third grade she wanted particular (more expensive) notebooks. I bought them because they were on her required list. We labeled them with her name (also required on her list) but her teacher decided she had to share with another student. She did not ask Jessica, she merely informed her that she MUST give the other child her school supplies. That ticked me off! I ended up allowing the child to keep the supplies (why embarrass an innocent child) but I called the principal and had a meeting with the teacher. I informed her it was theft and had she wanted us to donate supplies, she should have asked. I did send a case of plain notebooks to her to help but I still think stealing school supplies from a child is the lowest of low!
I do not understand where the tax $ goes. when I went to school I had a handful of school supplies to buy. The lists now are 2-3 pages long! Ridiculous!

By Nicki on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 02:45 pm:

Same here, when I attended public school, I don't remember having to bring many supplies. It wasn't until I attended a private school do I remember my mom having a list of things to purchase. Things have really changed! I think if I were a parent sending a student to public school, I would prefer to pay a set fee at the beginning of the year for supplies. It doesn't make sense for all these parents to be out shopping for these supplies if they are going to be communal. Let the staff do the shopping. As far as what I did buy, I would definitely want my child's name on her belongings, and used by her only. Crystal, this seems absurd, and I don't blame you for questioning this policy.

By Tarable on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 03:19 pm:

School supplies around here are outrageous.. The year before last I didn't get the note home about prordering the PTA school supplies (about 40 -60 per child depending on the grade) which I find convienent, so I had to go out and find all the stuff. Let me tell you I was told to buy 60 BIC yellow higlighters, that is right every child in my DDs 3rd grade had to buy 60 yellow highlighters. There are about 150 in her grade.. Now tell me what the H**L are they going to do with 9000 yellow highlighters? I called the school and was told that it was not a typo that is actually what they wanted, and they needed to be BIC.. well it cost me almost $25 just for the highlighters...

Let me tell you I found that preorder form this year and paid $50 and don't have to worry about anything but a zipper binder and a backpack...

School supplies are outrageous and I start getting notes home about needing extra stuff within a month of them starting.

I understand that the school districts are getting less money or not as much of a raise as they need, but sometimes I wonder where our outrageous school/property taxes are going..

But in TX there is a lot of issues with that right now.

By Amecmom on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 04:03 pm:

We did the same thing in K when I was teaching - except for the dry erase markers (we used china markers - much cheeper and washable - the dry erase is NOT FYI). It made it much easier to just put a few bins out on each table (glue, crayons, scissors). As the teacher I did tell them about keeping things nice and treating their supplies properly.
I never had to ask the parents to supply extra during the school year. Actually, by sharing, I think we saved the parents money because we would parcel out new things only when they were needed and nothing ever got lost.

One thing I did do for scissors and non-consumables was write each child's name on the item. They would still share the items during the year, but at the end of the year the item would be sent home.

It seems outrageous the amount of stuff you are all saying the school seems to want! My son entered K last year and the list was very reasonable. I had no problem with it.
As far as school taxes - the money is mainly spent on salaries, benefits, contracts (bussing, cafeteria, etc). The district will pass the buck along to the parent whenever possible.
Ame

By Amecmom on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 04:05 pm:

Oh - and also I asked one group to supply tissues, another to supply some other items - it turned out to be quite fair and really a savings beacuse everyone bought something, but not everyone had to buy everything.
Ame

By Reds9298 on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 04:28 pm:

>>"Now tell me what the H**L are they going to do with 9000 yellow highlighters?"<<
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!! Amen sister!

What do you all pay for textbook fees where you are? Here, other than K, textbook fees start at $80 (I think that's one grade!) but most generally are almost $200 per child. That's for books they will never keep.

Our $60 supply fee at preschool...that means the class will be getting between $700-$800 total(12-14 students in the class) for "supplies", plus the supply list that each child will bring in. The teacher is supplying a "folder" (LOL). That was stated boldly on the list! Whoopee!

By Rayelle on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 05:29 pm:

I'm waiting to see what they are doing here this year. At the end of last school year, they said the school board was going to supply everything because of so many parents complaining of how much they pay for supplies for public school. It wasn't official, more of a rumor I guess. However, they still have budget cuts so they don't know where the money is going to come from. Last year they supplied the tissues but parents still sent them in because they were like sandpaper.

I'm not really sure how I feel. The list gets longer every year and my kids are in back to back grades so it makes the difference noticeable. I don't want any child to do without and I don't want my kids to use lower quality supplies then what I would purchase, which is probably what will be the case if the school board does the supplies. I understand about crayons and things that they use a lot. Fortunately, walmart has crayons for about 20 cents right now so it's not a big deal to buy extra of those. I just think the list of requirements for your child should be separate from what they usually need extras of. I also think brand name items and large quantities are ridiculous.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 07:13 pm:

$110 for Emily.

$60 for an activity card (get into athletic events, plays for free and buys your yearbook)
$30 for registration
$5 for physical ed (not sure what this one is paying for. It's new)
$4 for an assignment notebook
$11 for band uniform cleaning fee

By Tink on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 08:37 pm:

I'm always blown away by this topic when it comes up each year. I'm not required to supply anything for my dks, including a No. 2 pencil. Now, every year my children's teachers send out a wish list of supplies that they'd like parents to donate but it's usually reams of white paper, pencils, crayons, tissues, construction paper, antibacterial wipes, glue sticks. Never required, no quantities listed and no brand names specified. I usually go BTS shopping with my mom, who is a 1st grade teacher, and I purchase some of her suggested most-needed items and usually spend about $50-75 for all three of my kids.

I've never heard of having to pay a textbook fee until high school and any other fees are only for extracurricular activities. I would be furious to be required to not only provide all of my child's school supplies used in school along with the supplies used by the rest of the class. I don't understand how you can be *required* to purchase these things as part of a free education.

By Imamommyx4 on Thursday, August 2, 2007 - 10:20 pm:

Tara, Did you ever find out what they did with 9000 Bic yellow markers??

By Crystal915 on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 01:07 am:

I should add this is NOT just for Kindergarten, this is for all grades. Next year I have to supply a longer list of "community" items. A friend of mine who is a bit of an activist said "That's communism!!" I might be hard pressed to use such a term, but I still don't think it's right to require such purchases. I mean, little things like the scissors, a pair of Fiskars should last a while, and I have to buy a pair for each child every year. Stupid little things like that are adding up!! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who opposes it, but now what do I do about it?
9000 BIC highlighters? SHEESH!! And some of the lists you guys have posted makes me want to cry! What happened to our public school systems?

By Crystal915 on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 01:14 am:

Oh, and Ginny, it's a policy for all the public schools. My kids are in Geary Cty, which covers Ft. Riley's schools, and one of my friends warned me of this when her son started school 2 years ago. The county I work in (and will be moving to mid-year) is the same. I wonder if I'll have to buy all of this stuff again when we move?!

By Karen~admin on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 08:36 am:

When mine were still in public schools, it nearly made me go broke getting all the supplies. For grades K-8 a list was published in the local paper a week or two before school started. You usually had to get *additional* supplies the first day of school. Grades 9-12, you got your list the first day and were expected to have all the supplies for the next day!

In high school, they started requiring these $100 graphing calculators for all kids. One year, I had to buy 2 of those, plus the original supplies, I know I spent close to $400, including those calculators, for 2 kids! And that did not include any of the class fees, registration fees, etc. which, between the 2 of them, was an additional $150 to $200.

In the lower grades, in addition to the individual supplies, we also had to send supplies for *group classroom use*. It was maddening. Not to mention very expensive.

By Rayelle on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 09:41 am:

Wow, it shouldn't be required to buy stuff for the whole class. Here, our community items are just for kindergarten, which I understand since they sit at tables instead of desks, so the supplies are put out on the tables. I read in the paper today the board of ed is supplying bulk items like crayons and glue, which of course are the cheapest things to buy on the list anyway. I have to get my things together for college as well.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 10:43 am:

I might stil have to buy the graphing calculator, for Emily. When I bought one for Sarah, everyone predicted that she'd lose it and we'd have to buy another one! Well, she never did! LOL!

Here's the list, for the elementary school my kids went to, when they were younger. It says that supplies should be labeled! LOL!
School Supply List

By Colette on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 11:02 am:

They can be crazy expensive. I have to buy a second graphing calculator for ds this year. I haven't gotten the list of everything else they need but it will be extensive. I do know, from working at school, that at least in my district, if you truly could not afford the school supplies the PTO gives the principal several brand new backpacks, filled with supplies for those who can't afford to get there own.

By Tarable on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 11:31 am:

I have no clue what they did with all those highlighters but I do know that the kids in 4th grade are now just asked to bring 20 instead of 60 each.

My DD didn't use a single one of those highlighters because her sister gave her a "cool" highlighter and she used it all year long.

By Melanie on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 01:15 pm:

Like Tink, we are not required to buy these types of items for the class. Teachers are always happy to take donations of pencils, paper, etc., but we do not get a list of items to supply.

Our Parents Club gives each teacher $300 at the beginning of the school year to purchase supplies with.

We do have a $185 per child cost for the bus, and a "suggested" donation to the school of $250 per child each year, so the district does hit the families up for cash in other ways.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 01:42 pm:

every child in my DDs 3rd grade had to buy 60 yellow highlighters

Even through a year of college, I don't think I even went through more than about 3-4 highlighters and college kids are the poster children for highlighting! LOL!

I can't imagine what they would have done with all those highlighters!

By Imamommyx4 on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 04:26 pm:

My dh calls it socialism instead of communism. Meaning you produce and somebody else has control of it so that everybody is equal. Sounds nice on paper but in the real world it don't work.
Don't get me wrong, I'll donate to impoverished kids and not blink an eye. But when you force me to do it, it gets under my skin.

By Karen~admin on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 06:41 pm:

We only had to pay textbook fees if they were for elective classes. Other electives, such as art, woodworking, band, have fees for other supplies, equipment, etc. Textbooks for *regular* required classes were *free*, as long as you turned them back in, in decent condition at the end of the school year.

Our class fees went to who knows what. Yearbooks were extra, prom tickets were extra, seems like every time we turned around we were being nickel-and-dimed for something else.

By Reds9298 on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 10:18 pm:

The fees here are for "textbook rental". That fee does not include ONE supply. The parents also get a supply list, sometimes for community use, sometimes for individual use. The teacher never sees a dime of that "textbook" money. Most districts here offer $75/year for the teacher to use to buy supplies, which let's face it, goes nowhere for a class of children.

It doesn't matter what you do with the textbooks here, everyone still pays the fee and you get nothing back. Everything else is extra...sports, band, field trips, programs, yearbooks, proms. (Prom tickets here are like $75-$85/couple, PLUS the pictures which start at $25 for one photo.)

By Dawnk777 on Friday, August 3, 2007 - 11:09 pm:

Yikes! Sarah only pays about $10/ticket. It's only a dance in a decorated cafeteria and there's no meal included. The photographer pictures are about $15. I don't think she's ever gotten the picture.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, August 4, 2007 - 05:05 pm:

The proms here are in a beautiful reception-type area...large hotels, country clubs, etc. NOTHING in a cafeteria! LOL That's not even considered. The class starts raising money when they are freshmen, then use that to pay as juniors. It's STILL that expensive per couple. Includes a sit-down dinner, but STILl!

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, August 4, 2007 - 05:36 pm:

Yikes. They used to have one prom for both high schools, at the American Club (snooty place in Kohler, just a few miles away - where they make toilets, bathtubs and faucets).

Then, each school decided to have their own prom and they have been right at the school, for all of Sarah's high school experience. The cafeteria where it was this past school year, is brand-new, though, so probably was cool to these kids.

By Mommmie on Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 02:27 pm:

9000 highlighters. That's so wrong it's hilarious.

I don't have to provide any supplies for my son's private school nor buy any textbooks.

Our public school has that package deal with the PTA where you just give the PTA $45 and they buy the supplies and give them to the teachers. You never even know what you bought.

The PTA gives each teacher $1,000 for her to pick out classroom supplies.

By Crystal915 on Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 04:47 pm:

I'd actually be ok with a donation to the PTA like that, because buying the items they need in bulk is still cheaper than each parent buying some for each child.

By Sandysmom on Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 06:53 pm:

Crystal, I would be angry too! I have not had to deal with that so far, and if things were kept in a community basket, they each had the kid's names on them so they got their own glue or whatever the item was. For kindergarteners, I guess it is important to keep things away from them like scissors or glue because some kids eat glue and scissors can be dangerous. But even so, I wouldn't want my daughter to end up with someones roughly used crayons or markers while hers are nice and gently used.

As far as the price of school supplies - ridiculous! I know I spent $150.00 just for my daughter's supplies last year. What gets me is, the county we live in, the school tax we pay is high. It's nothing for someone in a 4 bedroom home on an acre of ground to pay around $5000.00 just for school tax. I ask myself every year, where is our money going? It's ridiculous, they don't even clean the roads off on moderately light snow days so the kids can go to school.

By Amecmom on Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 08:15 pm:

Sandy, where I live, that tax would be cheap! A four-bedroom on one acre is (depending on the age and amenities of the house) $12,000 to $16,000. So - no matter how bad you have it, someone always has it worse.
As much as I dislike paying school taxes, I know that better schools (districts with more money) increase the desirability of my home.
Also, so many people confuse school tax and town or county tax -which would pay for snow removal.
Every election year the town board members in our town have the battle cry that they are going to reduce taxes. They have nothing to do with school tax which is the huge chunk of what we pay. We really get no other services in or town. Even our library is only partially funded by taxes.
Oh well- we do know that no matter what, if there is a way to make parents pay more, the schools will find it.
Ame

By Sandysmom on Monday, August 6, 2007 - 08:39 am:

Wow! 12 - 16 thousand?! That just blows my mind. :o That's ridiculous. Actually, I know our school taxes don't go to snow removal, I just added that as an afterthought. As much taxes as we pay, PA is notorious, at least around here, for sloppy snow removal. I live about 2 miles from the Maryland border and the next morning after having snowed, the MD roads look like they havent even been snowed on, at least the main roads look that way, and the PA roads look barely touched.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, August 6, 2007 - 10:44 am:

For a house assessed at $138,000, we paid 3200 in property taxes. We have a 1600 sq ft cape cod.

I don't know where snow removal comes in, but usually our roads are cleared quickly and well! Even after a big snow fall, within about a day or so, you wouldn't be able to tell, we'd had a fresh snow.

By Marcia on Monday, August 6, 2007 - 12:40 pm:

Wow Dawn, houses sure are cheap where you live!!! I don't know what a Cape Cod is, but for a raised bungalow here, the same size, the price is around $300,000, with total taxes around the same as what you pay.
Sorry, totally off topic.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, August 6, 2007 - 02:53 pm:

This is a Cape Cod

By Sokay39 on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - 11:46 pm:

Very interesting. This discussion thread went from school supplies to house taxes... Anyway, on the teacher's side of the street, at my fairly rural school, teachers are allowed to spend exactly $100 of the county's money in their classrooms. We are given a list of supplies we may purchase and we may only purchase from that list. $100 worth of markers, crayons, paper, and pencils doesn't go very far for a classroom full of students and that doesn't include ANYTHING else we may need for the classroom (paint, construction paper, scissors, rulers, proctractors, science boards, etc., etc., etc.) I personally end up spending around $800-$1000 a year out of my pocket for classroom supplies and I also have 2 children of my own. It is not really a lot to ask to have parents bring in some supplies so that that $100 can be spent more effectively and efficiently on the students' needs for the year. Putting the supplies in a communal bin helps with transition SO MUCH and it also helps keeps the students who truly can't afford supplies, or whose parents don't care enough about their own child to spend the money (and, yes, there are more of these types of parents than you would expect) from being embarrassed when supplies are being brought out. Then there's the whole theft aspect...I could go on and on...

By Reds9298 on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 12:11 pm:

In response to Sokay39..it sounds like other places do not have textbook rental fees like they do here. As I said before, that is to USE the books, not keep them. Fees are anywhere from $80 to over $200 depending on the grade level. PLUS, supplies needed for school.

For me, where we live, (and keep in mind I don't have children in public school as of yet), the textbook fee (which is USELESS IMO) in addition to the supplies is what gets me. As a teacher myself, I know where you're coming from with out-of-pocket expenses, although being in Kindergarten I didn't have to spend as much as others grades. (different fund) Mostly what I spent was on items that I would keep and take with me when I left (which I did), but that benefitted us in the classroom at the time. I rarely bought consumables with my own $, but I know that's not typical for teachers. My "consumable" out-of-pocket expenses went for holidays and treasure boxes, etc.

Indiana needs to dump the textbook rental fee and just go to a fee that's paid for supplies that the whole class uses. I would love that. I think people around here are ticked because they pay this $150+ fee for "books" PLUS the supplies that someone else's kid is going to ruin.

I loved our K spending account because my whole school is extremely low-income people who fit both categories that you mentioned - parents don't care to buy what they need and/or can't afford it. Our "fee" in K was strictly a supply fee. $35/child (in K only) that was mine to spend on supplies, consumables, whatever for the classroom. Times 50 kids in my class alone, and that's a lot!!

By Amecmom on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 12:27 pm:

Deanna - you had HOW MANY KIDS in your K class? 50? Did I read that right? How many aids did you have? Or was that a total of am and pm sessions?
I had 31 students (full day) and an aid. Even 31 was too many in K.
WOW!
BTW - we have no textbook fee where we are.
Ame

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 01:32 pm:

Emily was lucky. She only had 13, in her K class. Sarah had about 20-21.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 02:58 pm:

Ame- 31 all day is waaay to many!!! We did not have full day, and are only beginning full-day here this coming school year. I had 20-25 in the AM and the same in the PM class, but usually it was 25 each. One year I had a full-time aide, another year a half-time aide that I split with the other K teacher. It was ridiculous! The other 5 years, we had no paid help, only one or two parents who came in occasionally. (No parent involvement in my building either...we're talking 90% of the parent population is under 25 with 3-4 children, all different fathers, unmarried, welfare, you get the idea.) You just have to have extremely good classroom management. It's so not good for anyone though.

Actually I think we had ONE year that was unusual and I had 17 and 17. It was wonderful in every way.

By Crystal915 on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 08:51 pm:

OMG!! I can't imagine 30+ 5 year olds!! I *think* the teachers told me the K classes (all day) are in the mid teens. There are a bunch of schools in this town, and 3 K classes in the school my kids are going to. NUTS!!!

By Amecmom on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 09:24 am:

I was teaching in Brooklyn at the time. We had 6 or 7 K classes (full day) and each had an average of 35 kids. I did have a full time aid who was very good. It does boil down to classroom management and good routines. Most of those kids left my class well prepared for first grade. The ones that didn't had issues that were not related to education - issues I could not solve.
I've always taught large classes. That's just the way it was in the district in which I taught. They really needed to add another elementary school to the district. I know there were at least 5, but it was just not enough.
I don't know what it's like now. I have not been back since we moved and had children.
Ame

By Shann on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 01:22 pm:

We took our dkids in today to meet there teachers our twins who are in 1st they have a new teacher who is new to the school her first year teaching and there is 11 kids in her class including my kiddos. I was real happy with that small class alot on one on one time for them. Dd who is in 3rd there was about 18 and oldest dd I think there were 20 so all in all I think they will have a good school year.

By Breann on Monday, August 13, 2007 - 12:36 am:

Wow, some of these required things are crazy!

My kids go to public school, and we don't have to supply anything at all. Not even pencils. My dd will be in 3rd grade, and my ds in kindergarten. They just have to show up. Everything right down to the pencil box is furnished for them.

Crystal, I completely agree with what you are saying. If the $$ is coming out of my pocket (on top of the school taxes already coming out of my pocket) then I would want someone to be accountable for the things that I send. There are lots of kids that aren't taught to respect their items, and I would be very frustrated if I had to supply the items for them.