In past years, the school sent supply lists home to families at the end of the school year.  Families had to provide supplies by the first day of school.  An external company offered Alameda families the option to purchase supplies through them.  Their program fulfilled just over half of items on the list, but families had to procure the rest.  Informal feedback from families and teachers indicated several issues with the program: expensive, late delivery, inconsistent quality/quantity, and extensive packaging waste.

PTA responded by creating an easy, lower cost school supplies program for all Alameda families, while helping teachers customize classroom supplies for students.  The new program mirrors one used by David Douglas School District.

Every student has all of the supplies needed for the year, and all students receive the same supplies. Students also learn many important social skills from sharing supplies.

Fulfilling the total supply list used to cost Alameda families as much as $70-$100 per student. Together we leverage our group size for collective buying power saving each family money.

In addition, our program saves families time by streamlining what you need to provide in preparation for going back to school. Families will still need to provide a few personal items for their student(s) like a backpack, water bottle, lunchbox and possibly headphones.  PTA will handle the rest.

Supplies are shipped directly to the school over the summer so that teachers have time to organize their classroom before the first day of school. Additionally, teachers have more control over the supplies coming into the classroom in terms of quantity and quality. And the fundraising portion of the fees collected allows the Alameda PTA to further support our teachers’ classroom needs.

The Alameda PTA has opted to round-up and incorporate a modest fundraising amount to the fees. This fundraising allows us to provide financial support to families in need and to provide each teacher with a small fund to purchase any additional, specialized classroom supplies they might need.   

Each year, teachers across our country dip into their own pockets to buy materials and supplies for our children's classrooms. Tax code gives educators a $250 deduction for this, but many teachers spend well beyond that. On average, teachers spend $480 a year.

The Alameda PTA does not believe it is the responsibility of our communities’ educators to subsidize one of the costs resulting from the underfunding of public schools in America.

The Alameda PTA has designed the program so that starting next year, all school supplies purchased for classrooms will be communal to the classroom.  As such, teachers will no longer send any supplies home at the end of the school year.  Instead, durable items like scissors, rulers, and calculators will remain in the classrooms for use year-after-year and the PTA will work with teachers to replace damaged or worn-out goods as needed. 

Moreover, PTA will be purchasing supplies in bulk so you will no longer have individually packaged sets of supplies shipped to you for each student. These efforts will reduce packing waste and reduce overall consumption of supplies over time, so classrooms use only what they need.