School supplies are a necessary part of heading back to the classroom.
The lists from school districts in the area can be concise: scissors, glue, notebooks, crayons, pencils.
Bentonville and Fayetteville have common lists for every elementary school in their districts. Rogers approved elementary lists as school ended this spring. Springdale will publish elementary lists on its website next week, officials said.
Each item has its purpose. Her teachers like composition notebooks instead of spiral notebooks because the pages do not tear out as easily, said Amy Putnam, principal at Westside Elementary School in Rogers.
Color-coded folders help with organization, said Anne Saullo, literacy facilitator at Grace Hill Elementary School. A teacher can look across the classroom and see if everyone is ready to work.
At A Glance
Tax Free Holiday
Arkansas’ sales tax holiday is Aug. 3-4. State and local sales tax will be waived on certain items. Clothing, clothing accessories, school supplies, art supplies and instructional materials under a certain price will not be taxed.
Define it:
• Clothing, including T-shirts, pants, baby blankets, diapers, shoes and uniforms priced less than $100 per item will be tax free.
• Clothing accessories, including cosmetics, hair accessories, jewelry, bags and sunglasses priced less than $50 will be tax free.
• School supplies, including books, notebooks paper, scissors, folders, calculators, tape, tablets, index cards and lunch boxes will be tax free.
• School art supplies, including paints, paintbrushes, clay, glazes and sketch pads will be tax free.
• School instructional materials, including reference books, textbooks, workbooks and globes will be tax free.
Source: Staff Report
The dry-erase markers on many of the Rogers lists are for children to mark their answers and hold them up for a teacher to see, said Virginia Abernathy, assistant superintendent of elementary curriculum and instruction. That tells a teacher instantly if children are understanding the lesson.
Some things are essential in every classroom, Abernathy said.
“We gotta have paper and pencils,”she said.
Community support, like the United Way of Northwest Arkansas Stuff the Bus campaign, helps teachers equip students who can’t buy supplies for school.
“It’s important to have that backpack and those supplies to go back to school,” said Jill Darling, president of the United Way of Northwest Arkansas.
Stuff the Bus donations in Pineville, Mo., Bentonville, Huntsville, Springdale, Siloam Springs and two locations in both Rogers and Fayetteville went back to the districts where the bus was parked, Darling said.
School administrators said their goal is to keep costs down.
Rogers staff members review the lists for every grade and every school, checking prices to make sure lists of basic supplies do not top $15, Abernathy said. Brand names are banned from the Rogers list and back-to-school sales should help lower prices.
Springdale School District officials try to keep overall cost in the $15 to $20 range, said Kathy Morledge, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning in grades prekindergarten through seventh. Parents at some schools don’t need to shop, but can buy supplies at the school. One list came in at $30, but it included all field trips for the year, she said.
“That way they can take care of everything up front so parents don’t feel like they’re being nickel-and-dimed all year long,” she said.
Support from parents, the community and vendors allow Bentonville administrators to be very price conscious, said Mary Ley, communication director for the district.
“You don’t know who does and doesn’t ‘have’ because those things are taken care of,” she said. “We don’t want it to be a parent responsibility. We try not to have the teachers buy supplies.”
There is support for families who cannot purchase supplies in Springdale, Morledge said. A family should not have to choose between food and school supplies.
The Rogers community is generous, Abernathy said. Families in need can ask at the school for help with supplies. They don’t usually have to ask, said Debra Lewis, principal at Bonnie Grimes Elementary School. Teachers and the school counselor try to make sure there are supplies for children in need during the first day of school.
Being prepared to learn is more important than any collection of notebooks, said Saullo, literacy coordinator at Grace Hill, one of Rogers’ lower income schools.
A little bit of organization before school and arriving on time can make a big difference, Saullo said.
“The kids are more important than the supplies,” she said.