Megan Navarro
KYLE — Educators in the U.S. spend anywhere between $500 and $750 of their own money each year on supplies for their classroom, according to the National Education Association, and within the past two years, inflation has spiked prices for school supplies by at least 24%.
Because of these rising numbers, the Hays CISD Education Foundation (HEF) is launching a Teacher Closet to offer a resource that provides district teachers with what they need for their classroom. The foundation adopted the initiative this most recent academic year, following the district entering into a new memorandum of understanding to re-design the ins and outs of how HEF was working. This ultimately led the foundation to move into Hays CISD’s old administration building, where there is also space to house the Teacher Closet.
“We have some community members and we have Buda Lions Club that are helping us build shelving in that area in our office for the teacher supplies. So, we’ve kind of had to put all of the pieces together and then, of course, put out the call for donations [and] support to buy the things to put on the shelves once the shelves are built,” explained HEF Executive Director Ida Musgrove.
More often than not, teachers are having to pay out-of-pocket to stock up on various items, Musgrove explained. The current climate of school finance has put a strain on and restricts funding, so while teachers will make sure that their students have everything they need to learn, they may not necessarily have all of their resources to fully set up their classrooms, she continued.
The basic allotment, the amount of state funding that Texas school districts receive per student, has been set at $6,160 per student since 2019 and only recently changed, with the passage of House Bill 2 in the 89th Legislative Session: “Generally, public education in the state of Texas is not keeping up with inflation,” Musgrove said.
“This closet is more focused on items teachers may need to set up their rooms, whether that's highlighters or it's like borders for their bulletin boards or maybe paper cutters and stuff like that that they can use. It came about partly because it's not like teachers get paid a whole lot of money. My mom, who passed away about three years ago, she was a retired teacher and I certainly know growing up, I spent many an hour in the classroom, helping her laminate and cut out things to create her room with,” Musgrove shared.
The HEF Teacher Closet is going to be strictly for teachers within Hays CISD. The items available will not be content- or subject-specific, rather they will be more generic for all teachers.
Though the foundation’s committee that is working on the initiative is still finalizing the details, teachers will either receive a budget or limit on the number of items they can shop for at the closet, as well as it will only be available during certain times.
“We'll have shopping dates and times that will be available on the website that they can go in and schedule … We'll have some Saturdays throughout the year, too, because we know the work week can be challenging for people to get out. I actually taught for eight years myself, it was my first career, and when you're done with your teach day, you're pretty spent. We'll have a [schedule] of weekdays and Saturdays for dates and times that they can come in and they can choose their time slot. We don't want it to be where it's overcrowded and there’s too many people in there,” Musgrove said.
There will be a grand opening for the Teacher Closet from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at the HEF facility, located at 21003 Interstate 35, Kyle. For the grand opening, teachers are asked to bring their badge to sign in and to be able to shop.
To learn more about the closet, or to purchase a donation off the Amazon Wish List, visit www.haysef.com/teacher-closet.
“The more volunteers and the donations we get, the more days we can be open and the more items we can push out to our schools,” Musgrove concluded.
