Educators Prepare For New School Year, Pay For Some Supplies On Their Own

FULTON, MISS. (WCBI) – Teachers across our area are preparing for a new school year. Most have been in their classrooms for at least a week now, making sure everything is ready for the first day of school. While many educators have to dig into their own pocket to purchase supplies, there is a statewide program that helps ease the burden.

Although this marks her 30th year in the classroom, First Grade Teacher Lisa Love still looks forward to the first day of school.

“Getting back in a routine and seeing their smiling faces, in first grade, they’re all ready and eager to go,” said Love.

Love, and her colleague Carrie Pharr, are getting their classrooms at the Itawamba Attendance Center ready for students, and that includes a math rap.

They already know who will be in their classes, and have been busy the past week or so decorating their rooms. While teachers in Mississippi have access to the Education Enhancement Fund procurement card program, to help buy supplies for their classrooms, they still have to pay for some things themselves.

“It varies from year to year, just because I like for everybody to have certain things and we need those before school starts, so I just go out and get it, the EEF card does come in handy,” Pharr said.

Teachers we talked with said paying for supplies out of their own pockets is just part of the job. They all agreed though that the number one determining factor in a students’ success is parental involvement.

“You have students each year who come in, parents have helped them with their homework, gone over things with them , then you get students who aren’t so lucky and so having good parent involvement is key,” Love said.

As Superintendent of Itawamba County Schools, Michael Nanney is doing everything he can to make sure teachers at all seven campuses are ready for a new year. He knows teachers have many demands and he believes one of the toughest challenges involves social media.

“There’s a lot of things that have become more complex, used to you just dealt with a child and actions from when they got to school in the morning till they got off the bus in the afternoon. Now, with social media you may have two students get into it after school on snapchat, Facebook , or tweet back and forth and you show up the next morning and have to mitigate that,” Nanney said.

Still, even with the challenges, educators like Lisa Love and Carrie Pharr say they couldn’t see themselves doing anything else, counting it a privilege to teach young people.

Students return to school in Itawamba County next Friday.