This week new teachers in the Escambia County School District are receiving free boxes of much-needed classroom supplies, reflective of items they often buy with their own money.
It’s part of the new program, ‘Tools for Teachers,’ an online resource store launched by the Escambia County Public Schools Foundation, in partnership with the school district’s central warehouse.
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In the warehouse last week, district staffers were busy preparing for the program rollout, packing as many as three boxes each for delivery to the new teachers.
“Right now, we’re putting in the bottles of hand sanitizer," Director of Warehouse Operations David Gardner, who was in the trenches leading the effort. "So, all the teachers, what they’re getting right now in these boxes is 24 notebooks. They’re going to get 12 bottles of hand sanitizer, 24 sticks of glue, a whole box of Band-Aids, and six packs of coloring pencils.”
And, that’s just for starters.
“Jasper is loading in packages of dry erase markers, they’re also getting five reams of paper, six rolls of paper towels, 100-gallon size zip lock bags, as well as six-dozen pencils,” Gardner added.
Additionally, one of the three boxes will include an approved list of snacks, including granola bars and cheese crackers, according to Jo McArthur, executive director of the foundation.
“Kids come to school hungry,” McArthur began. “And a lot of times if they miss breakfast or something, the teacher has to hang on until, lunchtime to get them fed. And they're buying snacks on their own to feed the kids.”
According to McArthur, she and Gardner started collaborating on the idea of a resource store for teacher supplies about a year ago.
“We are part of a consortium of education foundations to the state of Florida. Our foundation and other ones had teacher resource stores. And I kind of thought through that idea, and Dave came into my office and said, ‘I have this great idea; I want to do something for teachers like the resource store,’” said McArthur, who wanted to do that, too.
“And we sort of started thinking through the process and how we can make it work. And here we are.”
Student-worker James Cruise from West Florida High School created the logo for Tools for Teachers.
In addition to grant funding and solicitation of public donations by clicking the logo on the foundation website, McArthur says a prominent Pensacola businessman, who chose to remain anonymous, contributed $50,000 to help get the program off the ground.
“We hear all the time how much teachers spend of their own money for their classroom," she said. "And our goal was to take away that burden from our teachers."
As part of the process, McArthur conducted a survey of about 200 teachers to determine what supplies they most often spend their money on, where they buy them, and how much they spend on them. That’s how the supplies list was generated. Moving forward, teachers will receive vouchers that they can use to place orders through an online store that Gardner created.
“It actually shows a picture of the item,” said McArthur. “And it compares the retail cost to what we are able to order in bulk. So they see that their dollar goes a lot farther here, and they go in and pick the items that they need for their classroom up to that amount of money that we decide their voucher is going to be.”
A sample Tools for Teachers graph shows the district’s central warehouse is able to spend about $87 dollars to buy items on the supplies list that would cost nearly $350 retail.
Looking ahead, in the short run, organizers plan to assist teachers in high-need schools next semester, with the target of having all of the district’s 2,700 teachers on board by the end of the school year.
For now, only new teachers are being gifted the supplies.
With Superintendent Keith Leonard on hand, a special Tools for Teachers delivery was made Monday morning at Ferry Pass Elementary School.
“I can tell you, managing the budget, there’re very few funds available for things like this. So having the foundation partner with us, and the warehouse, it is so appreciated,” said Principal Catrena Fieg.
First-grade teacher Lauren Kreis is one of four new teachers at the school to receive the free boxes of classroom supplies.
“Alright, let’s see what we got,” Kreis said to her students, as she began digging into the boxes. “Pencils, new whiteboard markers, and lots of paper."
The kids all cheered. They were equally excited about glue sticks, colored pencils, paper towels, and hand sanitizer.
Kreis said she was grateful to be receiving these items that she wanted and needed for her class and previously would have purchased herself.
“It eases my mind because one, I don’t have to use my own money to go get stuff and that can take a toll on my bank account,” Kreis stated. “Number two, all these kids come from different homes, so it’s good that they have all the materials that they need to succeed.”
