Teachers dig deep to apply lessons

Veteran teachers Geri and Bob Landi have spent about $1,000 of their own money on teaching supplies this year. The couple discovered long ago that emptying their wallets was part of the job.

"We pool our resources," said Bob Landi, who teaches with his wife of 35 years at Culley Elementary School. "It's a merger as much as a marriage."

The Landis are among nearly 11,000 teachers in the Clark County School District who officials say spend their own money -- often as much as $1,000 a year -- for teaching supplies.

"The school district needs to put less money into their bureaucracy and more into the classrooms," said John Jasonek, executive director for the Clark County Classroom Teachers Association.

At the core of the problem is an ageless battle between teachers who say they need more materials and school officials who say the state-funded school district can't afford more than basic materials.

"We provide a modest amount (for materials) but at least it's something," school district spokesman Ray Willis said. "Some teachers use more materials with their assignments, while some just use the textbook itself. It's variable."

Williams Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Sheryl Roberts is among those who choose to buy some of their own materials. She said she spends $400 to $500 a year of her own money on writing paper, teacher guides and art supplies.

"Each teacher is given a certain amount from the school budget, but sometimes things come up, or you aren't happy with what you have," Roberts said. "On a day-to-day basis, it doesn't bother me that I am spending my own money because I want to be able to bring the things I need into my classroom. But at the end of the year when I do my taxes ... what other job do you have to spend this much?"

Not all teachers willingly give up their income for educational materials. One fifth-grade teacher at Red Rock Elementary School, who declined to give his name, said he refuses to buy his own supplies.

"I feel that it is a district responsibility, not mine," he said. "If I don't have the materials I need, I try to work around it or do something else."

The issue of funding teaching supplies can be traced back to the state Legislature, which allocates money for education on a per-pupil basis. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, has been an outspoken advocate for increasing education funding.

As a special-education teacher, she also has felt the pinch of budget constraints.

"Especially at a year-round school, toward the end of the year, you don't have Kleenex. You don't have pencils, you don't have paper. It's ridiculous," said Giunchigliani, who teaches at Von Tobel Middle School in North Las Vegas.

But a blanket increase in per-pupil funding is not the only answer, Giunchigliani said. For instance, teachers at schools -- especially older schools -- with proportionately higher "at-risk" or special-education students should get more money for supplies, she said.

"We need to raise the per-pupil spending," Giunchigliani said. "That aside, there has to be a commitment from the districts to review their formulas for funding textbooks and materials."

Nearly 88 percent of the Clark County School District's $954 million budget is used for salaries.

Beyond that, each school gets a budget based on a formula for other expenses. For example, each elementary school gets $31.85 per student for textbooks; $8.20 per student for library books; $1.30 per student for field trips; and $30.72 per student for teaching supplies.

But each teacher rarely sees that $30.72 per student because principals often use the bulk of their total budgets for textbooks or technology.

That's true at Culley, where Principal Dennis Cobia gets a total of roughly $70,000 a year for teaching supplies. Cobia said that this year he spent $5,000 for just one set of 175 second-grade reading textbooks.

At Culley, teachers receive between $40 and $100 for supplies annually, not $30.72 per student.

"It's a constant challenge to find a new way to come up with money for teachers," Cobia said.

Culley's budget also includes expenditures for equipment such as televisions and VCRs -- a favorite target of thieves who struck several times this year -- and basic supplies, such as paper.

Cobia said teachers have been scrounging for paper recently. Just a few weeks before the end of the 1997-98 school year at the year-round school, Culley Elementary has just one box of paper left. Cobia keeps it under his desk.

"Teachers have to beg me for the last little bit," Cobia said. "They hoard it and if they run out, it's their problem. Once it's gone, it's gone."

Teachers in need of supplies often head to stores such as Learning is Fun in Las Vegas.

"We know a lot of teachers use personal credit cards and checks and aren't reimbursed," owner Charles Ivy said. "Whenever the budget is crunched, it affects the teachers."

Culley teacher Brenda Jones called her trips to the Learning is Fun store "Learning is Expensive."

"Basically what the district gives you is the bare minimum," Jones said.

Thirty-three-year teaching veteran Geri Landi knows that as well than anyone.

Landi's class has no science textbooks because the school uses special science kits that focus on hands-on experiments. Still, Landi said, she has had to buy books on insects and plants to make the lessons more meaningful.

She plans to continue to spend her own money when necessary.

"I'm sad the public does not feel education isn't important enough to finance it," Landi said. "I don't resent it. I chose a career knowing exactly what the system was."

SUN REPORTER Ben Grove contributed to this story.

archive