Maimuna Diallo

Every student needs pens, papers, staples, tissues and more. However the lack of funding for some items has teachers paying for supplies themselves or searching for donations.
The supplies used by students must be bought or requested by their teachers, like Social Studies teacher Chelsea Blasco.
“I get some supplies from the school,” said Blasco. “Expo markers, paper, staples, paper clips – but I bring in other items like playdough and pipe cleaners.”
National Honor Society (NHS) Community Service Coordinator and senior Addison Witkes said that for years NHS members have donated tissue boxes and distributed them to classrooms and staff rooms.
“It’s a shame that students and teachers have to supply them [tissues], but I really appreciate that we have the opportunity to do this for the teachers,” said Witkes.
Students need many different items beyond the classroom.
“I use the Media Center printers, which have been really useful. I’ve also used calculators in Algebra and scrap paper in Engineering,” said senior Valerie Landivar.
“Staples are a big thing, particularly with packets and long projects,” said junior Jesse Yahres.
When asked about using materials in class, junior Rachel Canfield also said tissues, in addition to calculators in math classes her freshman and sophomore years and chromebook chargers.
“Some teachers will let you borrow a chromebook charger if you ask,” said Canfield.
German teacher Erika Reichert also said that she gets tissues from NHS, in addition to buying some herself and procuring them in other creative ways.
One creative way included decorating tissue boxes with curriculum relevant information as an extra credit assignment, she said, an activity Canfield remembered.
“I had Frau Little freshman year, but I remember my friend in Frau Reichert’s class doing that project,” said Canfield.
Assistant Principal Josue Delgado said that the issue of funding items like tissues affects more than just the Regional.
“It was the same thing when I was a classroom teacher at Burncoat. Teachers had to pay themselves for tissues and hand sanitizer,” said Delgado.
He said that he didn’t have a good explanation for why tissues haven’t been included as requestable school supplies.
German teacher Erika Reichert said teachers follow specific processes for requesting supplies.
“First you click on a link on the staff website that brings you to a google doc. There you select the supplies you want from a long list and the amount that you need. This was originally set up by [assistant principal] Mr. [Anthony] DiBenedetto and is now run by [assistant principal] Mr. [Josue] Delgado,” said Reichert.
Some parts of the school get their supplies in different ways.
“The library acts like its own entity. It has its own budget with specific line items,” said Teacher Librarian Alana Stern.
“The supply budget pays for all the staples, bookmarks, tissues, and other supplies used by the library,” said Stern. But to balance the budget, the library staff is encouraged to have all of their orders in by the early spring.
“After the cut off, it’s not easy to order supplies. It’s easier to just buy it myself instead of going through order forms for other budgets,” said Stern
Stern said that if supplies run out after the deadline, particularly with tissues, then she pays for them out of pocket.
“The majority of supplies are paid for out of the library’s budget, but after the deadline it’s easier to just run down and buy a box of tissues if we run out,” said Stern.