Martin County teacher suggests swapping school supplies to help the school budget

Hobe Sound - Hobe Sound Elementary writing coach Janet Church is packing her leftover supplies. She does not plan to use them, but came up with a bright idea to pass them on to a teacher who can use them. Janet said,"Well I was thinking about the state budget cuts to education, leaving us less money for supplies and also with the changes in the way the pension plan and the health insurance is paid, that also gives teachers less personal money to spend on supplies."

The program is called the Teacher Supply Swap. "And I was looking in my closet and thinking you know when you have been teaching as long as I have, even having a little bit extra at the end of the year does start to add up. And I thought that maybe there is a way that we can spread this around and share instead of saving it all for a rainy day."
The Martin County School District has a Bright Ideas website where teachers and the community can make suggestions. Janet suggested teachers could swap needed supplies, even if they teach in different schools.

Cathy Breannan, the Martin County School District Public Information Officer said, "And through our new district website we have the ability to have internal blogs where staff members can basically post ideas and communicate, so why not create a way for teachers to share classroom supplies because we all know at different times of the year, you may have something that you no longer need, instead of throwing it away and putting it in a storage closet, why not see if somebody might be able to get some use of it right away."

Martin County School District

http://www.martinschools.org/