About a month ago, two local women founded a website about the Lee County School District and called it Parents for Transparency. It’s a wealth of information about school board candidates, district issues and teacher supply lists.
Amber Cebull and her friend, Ali Olivo, started digging into school system issues and were particularly surprised by the amounts and types of things that were showing up on teachers’ school supply wish lists.
"It's reasonable stuff," said Cebull. "It's copy paper. It's pencils, I think are the biggest item. It's books… there's emotional regulation tools. There's fidget spinners. There's little decor things. There's encouraging little pillows and little hangers for cubbies."
At the last workshop, board members Melisa Giovannelli and Debbie Jordan described teachers lamenting a lack of supplies and parents feeling overwhelmed by the need to provide them. Cebull began hearing the same thing, on the down-low.
"And I'm hearing in the comments on these things in my DMs [direct messages], because they're too scared to go into the comments, how much they're struggling.
But I'm like, clearly this is a thing. So let's just centralize it," she said.
So, she aggregated those lists she could find, 177 in all, which increased to 198 at press time, on the Parents for Transparency website. To date, the needs amount to about $656 ($649 at press time) per teacher. The goal is for the community to help fund as much as possible.
"If we can do this one thing … for teachers to make the classroom experience better for the kids," Cebull said.
Lee Schools spokesman Rob Spicker said that each school's budget contains an amount dedicated to supplies, for basics like paper, scissors, pens, markers or crayons, and maintenance items like paper towels and cleaning supplies. The situation is no different this year, he said.
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