Last Wednesday, as teachers and students settled into new classrooms and recapped summer adventures, kids didn’t have to scramble through bulging backpacks for a marker or notecard. Many families had already purchased supplies to be delivered to Hildreth Elementary School, allowing teachers to organize and distribute materials before students had stepped off the bus.
This year, HES launched a pilot program for ordering school supplies. Parents with children in kindergarten through grade 5 could access and order items on their students’ school supply list, customized by grade level, and have all the materials delivered to their child’s classroom by the first day of school.
Third-grade teacher Amy Bassage sorts through an organizer of school supplies, many of which are left over from previous years. (Photo by Grace Fiori)
The program started as a way to reduce the amount of excess school supplies carried over from year to year. Teachers coordinated with one another to make an inventory of supplies, determining what needed to be restocked and what was in abundance. Scissors, rulers, highlighters, and glue sticks, to name a few, are consistently left over at the end of the year and yet purchased anew come September, creating a continual cycle of excess.
Hildreth has numerous environmentally conscious initiatives, from the student Green Team to nontraditional recycling programs to solar panels. This new project is in the same spirit of environmental awareness. Third-grade teacher Reenie Durgin and parent school council member Rachel Kopay were lead organizers. The school council implemented the bulk supply order as part of a waste reduction initiative in the school improvement plan. The program also stands to benefit families who may be struggling to find specific materials. Supply chain issues have limited inventory nationally, and inflation rates skyrocketed the average cost of school supplies by 40%, according to the National Retail Federation.
Hildreth’s vendor had lower prices than those found at big-box chain stores like Target and Walmart. The vendor, Educational Products Inc., also provided additional incentives for school participation, such as store credit.
For this pilot year, the organizers were focused on determining families’ interest in the program and experimenting with the best purchasing and delivery system, said Kopay. Families responded encouragingly; more than half of Hildreth students participated.
“Through family donations and some funds that were given by the supply company … we were also able to provide supplies for all the families that requested [financial] assistance. The good thing is that all the kids who are getting those supplies get the exact same thing as everybody else,” said Kopay.
Decreasing stockpiling and waste
Durgin collaborated with Kopay and the school council to develop this initiative in the hope of decreasing the sheer volume of new supplies brought in and discarded over the course of the school year. “To see the waste that happens in schools is just insane,” said Durgin, who has previously worked, in collaboration with health teacher Erin Sintros, to collect markers, glue sticks, and other plastic products for recycling through Terracycle.
When Durgin started teaching third grade, she inherited a classroom crammed with school supplies, and four years later she’s still using them. Durgin has more than a dozen packs of No. 2 pencils, neatly wrapped in cellophane, from previous classes. “I don’t have the place to store this volume of supplies. I’m talking about enough pencils to last for years. Honestly, there’s no way that third-graders are going to go through this many pencils,” she said.
When she took over the classroom and its supply bounty, she alerted parents that they didn’t need to send in anything until a shortage might arise later in the year. “Parents were thrilled,” Durgin said, “I did put a caveat. For some people back to school shopping is a ritual and tradition. So I said that if that’s the case then consider getting A, B, C, or D.”
When Durgin and Kopay developed a schoolwide plan to reuse and reduce excess materials, they knew they needed to implement it in baby steps. “Teachers were sort of on board but when it came to do it, they were, like, well how does this work?” By using the bulk supply company, some pressure could be taken off teachers and parents. The third party tracks what materials are needed and what supplies teachers should expect to have in their classroom before the school year starts.
“We’re hoping it will catch on and eliminate the amount of stockpiling and the need. There are probably enough scissors in this building for three times the amount of kids,” said Durgin, “When you think about the environmental impact of that? Every school in Massachusetts and multiply that by all the states. It’s really overwhelming.”
Durgin and Kopay are aware that there will be adaptations and bumps along the way. Depending on the grade level and the teacher, different supplies are used up at different rates. “Teachers over the course of the year will inventory, and then we’ll regroup and adjust for next year. We have to be flexible,” said Durgin.
They decided not to include personal items such as masks, headphones, water bottles, or backpacks because everyone has specific needs and personal preferences for such items, said Kopay.
With the first stage of the process complete, Durgin was encouraged by the positive response from families so far. “We’re trying to build awareness and minimize our carbon footprint and do it collectively, all while teaching kids that we don’t need all this new stuff every year,” said Durgin.
The school council will be seeking feedback from families, teachers, and staff about the program implementation and ways in which it can be improved and adjusted. “There is so much work that goes into the preparation for the school year by the faculty, staff and administration,” said Kopay. “This is a very small thing in relation, but we look forward to feedback.”
