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August 21, 2006
Kelly Soderlund The Journal Gazette
At many businesses, employees receive the basic supplies they need to do their job: computers, wrenches, pencils, notepads or telephones, depending on the profession.

If there's something extra they need, they can often order it from a supply catalogue. But this luxury is a far cry from what most teachers face every year.While most schools do provide teachers with the standard supplies to run their classrooms and many give educators a varying cash supplement at the beginning of each school year, most teachers are digging into their own pockets to pay for supplies and classroom decorations.

Some first-year teachers have spent up to $1,000 throughout the year on classroom decorations, books, furniture, supplies and rewards for students.

"I run out of money every year," said Sara Jones, fifth-grade teacher at Deer Ridge Elementary School in Southwest Allen County Schools, who receives $300 at the beginning of each school year. "There are a lot of incidental expenses."

So far, Jones has spent only $50 of her own money, but she suspects she'll have to buy more items throughout the year.

School administrators across northeast Indiana say teachers are not expected to spend outside of their allotment, but teachers say it's necessary if they want to make their rooms inviting, stimulating and exciting for students.

"A classroom needs to be fun, it needs to be bright and colorful," said Melanie Tijerina, assistant principal and a teacher of English as a second language at West Noble Elementary School in Ligonier. "You see what other teachers are doing, and you don't want to be the one that's not fun or does not have prizes or does not ever do anything."

The state does not require schools to give teachers money to purchase supplies, but teachers who save their receipts can write their purchases off on their taxes. Educators have come to expect the added expense at the beginning of each school year and most have come to terms with it.

"People who work with kids like kids, so you just do things that are fun," said Tom Scribner, fifth-grade teacher at Deer Ridge Elementary School. "You do things you know they're going to enjoy. It makes your job more fun, more enjoyable when you can share things with them."
First is the worst

Toni Donaghy, a first-year kindergarten teacher at Haverhill Elementary School in Southwest Allen County Schools, said she has a pile of receipts in her desk for the almost $500 she's already spent on supplies. That money doesn't include the $100 she's spent on children's books over the past two years, preparing for her first job.

Donaghy suspects she'll spend a lot more money throughout the year on rewards for students and replacement supplies. For example, she's starting the year using her students' first names so the students won't be overwhelmed by the complexity of last names. But after winter break, Donaghy will add last names, which means buying all new name tags, stickers and mailbox labels. And that money will not come from the school, but from Donaghy's wallet. Donaghy and other Haverhill teachers receive $200 from the Parent Teacher Club. But that money is long gone.

To cushion the blow to their wallets, teachers become bargain hunters and pack rats. Jones was given a lot of supplies from her mom, who is an art teacher at Churubusco Elementary in Whitley County. She also was given a lot of children's books for her classroom library from a retired teacher.

Teachers also head to what many described as the mecca of supply stores in Fort Wayne: United Art & Education at 4111 N. Clinton St.

Sarah Butcher, fifth-grade teacher at Deer Ridge, said she arrived at the store 20 minutes before it opened on a day it was giving the first 50 customers a bag full of free supplies. But Butcher turned around and went home when she saw the line of teachers. Some had lawn chairs for the long wait.

Veteran teachers accumulate supplies and materials each year so they spend less than the rookies. New teachers also have a hard time gauging what they'll need, so many go overboard.
"I probably got carried away a little bit, but I was just excited, because it was my first year," said Robert Martin, first-year kindergarten teacher at West Noble Elementary.

"My first year I probably spent more because I didn't have enough experience to know what I needed and what I didn't need," said Janice McNutt, math teacher for fifth-eighth grade at Saint Mary Elementary School in Avilla.

Different circumstances often force teachers to purchase all new supplies, such as switching grade levels or starting new programs. Jennifer Grimm, first-year teacher at Saint Mary Elementary in Avilla, is involved in starting a new preschool program at the school, so she's already spent about $400 on supplies and estimates she'll spend $150 more throughout the year.
The school will reimburse her $100, Grimm said.

Supply and demand
The amount of money teachers are given from schools for supplies varies. Fort Wayne Community Schools gives each school an allotment based on their student enrollment.
Elementary schools receive $18 per student, middle schools get $20 per student and high schools receive $23, said district spokeswoman Debbie Morgan. The principals determine how to spend that money and whether to give teachers a supply allowance.

Going above and beyond what the school provides is not an expectation, Morgan said.
"That really is at the teacher's discretion," Morgan said. "We don't direct teachers to spend their own money on classroom materials."

Most schools don't have enough money in their budgets to supplement supplies. Churubusco Elementary School allots about $1,200 to each grade level to buy all of the supplies for every class, Principal Kevin Kempton said.

The money usually goes toward the standard supplies teachers and students need. Kempton said he will try to find more money to purchase extra items for teachers. But because teachers have different styles of decorating and instructing, it's hard to allot a set amount each year, he said.
"One teacher might not hardly decorate at all. Another teacher decorates a lot. A new teacher is going to spend a lot more money, because they have no resources to draw from," Kempton said. "I have teachers who are buying plants, they're buying materials to cover stuff with in their room, they're making curtains, so they're really decking their rooms out. It comes from their pocket if that's what they're wanting to do."

But sometimes there isn't enough money coming from enrollment dollars to pay for more expensive equipment. Susan Brace, sixth-grade teacher at Jefferson Middle School in FWCS, said her social studies department has to ask the school's Parent Teacher Association for $200 to buy large maps to hang on the wall.

Some school districts are wealthier than others and, thus, have more money to give teachers. Deer Ridge Elementary teachers receive a $300 check at the beginning of each school year.
Scribner said most of that money comes from the school's PTA, which raises thousands of dollars each year in support of teachers.

"Our parent-teacher club has, like, the Midas touch," Butcher said.

Deer Ridge teacher Sara Jones remembers working at Churubusco Elementary, where she received a $50 gift card to United Art & Education and had to buy her own colored paper.
"I was so excited when I was shown the supply closet (at Deer Ridge) the first time," Jones said. "Gold! It's gold! I can just take this?"

Most teachers are hesitant to say the rules are unfair because most knew what they were getting into when they graduated college.

"I don't think fair is the right word," Grimm said. "I think it's hard for teachers, but it's also hard for the schools when they only have so much money that they can give."

As an assistant principal and teacher at West Noble Elementary, Tijerina knows the struggle on both sides: not having enough money to give and not having enough money to buy with. But Tijerina puts on her teacher's hat when she talks about a lack of money.

"I think that the high expectation that our country has anymore for schools and the standard level they have for schools to achieve and to say they don't have any money to do that and to expect underpaid teachers to do that is ridiculous," Tijerina said. "I think that the standard we're held to often is not backed up with the funds that are available."

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