Teacher, administrators differ on supply issue

Published 11/10/2007 in News : Education By Emily Behlmann

Teachers might end up spending their own money on some enhancements to their classrooms, but a process provides them with all the supplies they need to teach the curriculum, according to USD 457 administrators.

However, David Duran, president of the Garden City Educators' Association, said that process isn't always effective for addressing immediate needs.

One Garden City High School math teacher, Gayla Leeper, found the procedures so flawed that she resigned over the matter. Leeper, who started teaching in Garden City in August, submitted her resignation Monday.

The district declined Leeper's offer to work two weeks after her resignation. The district is paying her through the two weeks, which ends Friday.

In Leeper's resignation letter, which she also gave to The Telegram, she described waiting for about 10 weeks to get her own set of objects like compasses and protractors.

She acknowledged that the math department has these and other materials in several supply closets, but added that there weren't enough for all teachers who needed them to use them at once. She said she needed her own set always available "to address students' needs on the fly."

Funds for classroom supplies are determined during the district's annual budgeting process. Programs, like "high school instruction" and "health services," develop proposals for how they would use their current level of funding and any additional money.

A group of administrators, certified and classified staff, and community members hears all the proposals and determines where any extra money goes that year, or where cuts are made.

This year, the high school's "teaching supplies" line item was reduced from $136,454 to $135,684, to pay for materials for a growing orchestra program, and extra lunch supervision now that a courtyard is enclosed and used as a cafeteria. GCHS Associate Principal Tracy Newell said that was a decision by a committee that developed the high school's budget proposal, with input from all departments.

Even with the reduction, there's enough to provide each high school department with a budget, he said. Some areas, like science, have higher budgets, because their supplies tend to be consumable and more expensive, he said.

The math department's budget this year is $4,500, said Newell, who administers that department.

Most supply decisions are handled at the department level, he said. In the math department, teachers don't necessarily have many supplies of their own, but they share supply closets that contain objects including rulers, compasses, protractors, glue, markers, tape, staplers, yarn, tape measures and straws.

"Anything you could possibly comprehend a need for in a lesson, I think they have it," Newell said.

Duran, a social studies teacher at GCHS, said he and other teachers can fulfill some supply needs with the department's budget. Teachers can request larger items from the school administration, though money for those purchases is limited, he said.

Parent Teacher Organizations help buy materials at some schools, and a few teachers each year can receive mini-grants for special items from the Garden City Public Schools Foundation. Four $200 grants will be awarded Monday to selected teachers.

However, it often takes a long time to get the materials into the classroom, Duran said. If he needs something quickly, like poster board for a project, he usually just buys it himself, he said.

"The way it is, it's so cumbersome with all the paperwork that you don't have time," he said. "It would be nice if there were some way the process could be sped up."

Leeper said she felt the same way. When she tried to request supplies from the department, she was told there was a problem with the department's credit card, so she had to wait. Newell confirmed there was a credit card problem, but said supplies already were available in the closets.

Leeper said she was limited as she tried to use varied teaching methods -- something the district values and something necessary as schools push to increase student test scores as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"It was 10 weeks wasted when every minute and second count," Leeper said. "All I want is the policies and procedures to be changed so teachers can make a difference in that classroom."

It's up to departments to make the judgement between which requests are "needs" and which are "wants," according to Newell.

The "needs" for teaching the curriculum should be supplied by the school district, Superintendent Rick Atha said.

"My understanding is that teachers have the appropriate supplies to teach what is needed for the curriculum," he said.

Atha said that as a classroom teacher, he dipped into his own pocket for supplies. But they weren't the necessities for covering the curriculum -- they were enhancements he thought he'd like to have.

A lot of teachers spend their own money on supplies, according to a recent survey from the National Education Association. The survey showed teachers spend an average of $1,180 a year on supplies such as books, lesson materials, math flash cards, crayons and other items.

A bill introduced in Congress this year would increase the tax deduction educators receive for using personal funds for curriculum-related supplies. On a plan set to expire this year, teachers currently can receive up to a $250 deduction, and the bill would increase that to $400 and make it permanent.

Kansas Reps. Nancy Boyda, Dennis Moore and Todd Tiahrt, and Sen. Pat Roberts, are co-sponsors of the bills, which are pending in committees in both houses.

Leeper said she never spent her own money. She offered extra credit for students who brought materials for the class, but said it's hard to expect students of low socio-economic status to bring materials.

The district addresses such needs by making most needed objects available to students, so they don't have to bring their own, Newell said. The Salvation Army also provides needy families with some basic school supplies.

But even when the basics are there, Duran said, it can be difficult for teachers to use the hands-on approaches advocated in in-service training sessions, if they don't have all the little things the lessons require.

"Teachers can get frustrated to the point where they feel like they're not being supported," Duran said.

That's a problem when USD 457 is one of many school districts struggling to keep its teaching ranks filled, he said.

Leeper, for one, is still holding out for change.

She accepted a job as program director at Garden City Community College's Adult Learning Center and is eyeing a run for the Board of Education.

She said the decision to leave her students in the middle of the year was difficult, but that "I knew nothing would change if I remained a teacher."

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