WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — For many, summer feels like it just started, but students and teachers are already thinking about the new school year. According to the National Retail Federation, 84% of families expect to see higher prices for back-to-school shopping.

 

What You Need To Know

According to the National Retail Federation, 84% of families expect to see higher prices for back-to-school shopping

One Wake County teacher says she has to be very resourceful in order to get all the supplies she needs every year

On Monday, the “Back to School with Tools4Schools” campaign kicked off in Wake County to benefit educators and students

WakeEd estimates that teachers spend an average of $500 on school supplies out of their own pockets every year

 

“For me teaching is not something I can turn off. I'm on summer vacation, but I'm always thinking about what I'm going to be doing in the fall and planning ideas,” said Miriam Perez, a teacher at Cedar Fork Elementary.

Perez might not be in the classroom right now, but she’s spending plenty of time figuring out which lessons to include this coming school year.

Courtesy: National Retail Federation

“I'm pulling together a lot of ideas from a lot of different places. Then all those ideas need different materials, and I'm scrounging from here and there and trying to figure out what I have so I can do the different activities,” Perez said.

One math lesson she’s working on involves measuring water in different glasses. She has enough rulers and plans to bring cups from home but she’s figuring out where to get the other supplies.

“The graduated cylinders, I have some at school, but I don’t know if I have enough. So once I’m back in the classroom I’m going to have to go through my boxes and see how many I have and this is the kind of thing where I might need to order more and try to scrounge some up if there’s not enough to give each group one,” Perez said.

She was hoping to do a different lesson that required funnels, but there were too many new supplies she needed for that.

“There are a lot of great things out there that I could look into if I didn't have to worry about supplies and costs and the practicality, “ Perez said.

She’s also been looking for a specific class set of books and was finally able to buy them from another teacher.

“You have to weigh it and that calculation is different for every teacher. What your personal financial situation is, what kind of materials you need and how important it is to you and figuring out how to balance those needs with taking care of yourself and your own finances and your own families versus the things that you need to feel like you’re being successful and effective in your job,” Perez said.

On top of needing resources to do their owns job, teachers also try to help students get what they need so that everyone is successful.

“Every year we'd have students who just weren’t able to bring the things on the supply list. So being able to get those things so that they're on equal footing with all the other students in the class so it wasn't holding them back and holding the class back it was always an issue every year figuring out how to make that happen,” Perez said.

“When teachers ask for things or when students need to bring in things that we know it's difficult for parents to, and it's difficult for teachers sometimes. We are all working together the best we can to make sure we are giving students the best possible learning opportunity they can have,” Perez said.

Many counties have organizations that give out free or discounted supplies to both teachers and students. On Monday, the “Back to School with Tools4Schools” campaign kicked off in Wake County.

“Tools4Schools was simply designed for that. It was to help teachers that we know are spending on average $500 out of their own pockets. We’ve confirmed that ourselves with teachers that have come in and shopped. So what the store is, it’s a place for teachers to get free supplies to bring to their classrooms, to use in their classrooms and to give to their students who don’t have it,” said Keith Poston, the president of WakeEd Partnership.

The WakeEd Partnership is once again collecting supplies to fill a warehouse that will benefit educators. People can donate supplies by placing them in any of the dozens of drop box locations across the county. This community-wide supply drive will benefit 11,000 teachers and 160,000 students.

“This is what Toosl4Schools and WakeEd Partnership is all about. It’s about reminding the community that these are our teachers, these are our students, our children and our schools. We want to do everything we can to support them and make them successful. Part of that is having all the tools you need to do your job,” Poston said.

The 4Others Foundation will match any donation to WakeEd Partnership’s Tools4Schools through the end of August up to $25,000.

For more information on Tools4Schools, visit the WakeEd website.