No More School Supply Shopping at Garlough

Thanks to Bisanz Brothers for their support.

Back to school often means finding school supply lists, families making a shopping trip, and students lugging supplies to school. But not anymore at Garlough Environmental Magnet School. This year the PTO has replaced all that effort with a $30 supply fee.

Why: It saves families time, effort, and money, reduces waste, and ensures higher quality supplies that are exactly what teachers want.

“This new approach will simplify the school supply process and foster a sense of community and
shared responsibility among our families,” Garlough Principal Sue Powell said in a letter to families. “We are excited about the positive impact this initiative will have for our school and the environment.”

How’s It Work?

Instead of families buying individual school supplies for each student, families pay a fee and the PTO sources all supplies for the entire school.

• Reduce: It starts by reducing what’s needed with teachers making specific supply lists. In the past, each grade shared a supply list even if all the teachers didn’t use all the supplies. Now the lists can be highly specific to each class.
• Reuse: Back in the spring, teachers collected unused supplies to be redistributed and reused.
• Bulk purchase: Once the PTO knew what supplies were on hand and what were still needed, they could make bulk purchases to minimize packaging and get quantity discounts to save money.
• Family fee: Instead of shopping, families are asked to pay a $30 fee. This saves families about 45% compared to the previous cost of school supplies. The online payment form includes options to sponsor other families and pay what you can afford. Additional support for families who can’t afford the fee is available. Students will still provide their own personal items, such as backpacks, lunch boxes, and outdoor gear.

“It has been quite a bit of work,” said PTO Treasurer Beth Ernst. “So many spreadsheets.” She described days and days of sorting, organizing, buying, and distributing school supplies—including a glue spill on her porch from a dropped package.

Less work in the future: “I believe there was a lot more work this year than there will be as we go forward,” said Ernst. “I think all of the things we learned about organizing and purchasing will help make this process go faster and smoother in subsequent years.”

Not alone: Garlough is not the only school in the district doing this. Pilot Knob has provided school supplies for a few years, though without the reuse component. Mendota is also trying it this year. Depending on how these pilots go, the ISD 197 might consider making it a district-wide initiative.

How It Started

The idea came up during a PTO meeting:

• Parent Jackie Polzin was sorting markers during the meeting. “She discovered how many good markers had been tossed as ‘garbage’ and we started discussing how it would be great if we could reuse last year’s school supplies for the next school year,” Ernst said.
• Magnet Coordinator Kim Benton quickly jumped on the idea and helped with organizing: “I don’t think we would have done as much as we did without the push from Kim,” Ernst said.

Impact

Equity: “It allows all students to start the year with the exact same school supplies, so no one has to worry about not having the right supplies at the beginning of the year,” said Ernst.

Change: “The bigger picture of course, is this is good for the environment and a way that adults can pay it forward to the next generation by having far fewer educational items go into our landfills,” said Powell. “This whole initiative is awe inspiring and is a real life example of the quote by Margaret Mead, ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.'”

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