Headline of the Day: "Evergreen Public Schools to pay for school supplies"

I kind of laughed.  Because it may not surprise any parent in any district that many districts don't pay for basic supplies and expect parents to foot that bill but many citizens would not know this.

Really, it's good news.  From The Columbian:

Instead of requiring families of elementary students to buy a long list of school supplies at the beginning of the school year, the district will foot the bill. The district will spend about $275,000 on school supplies for all 11,000 preschool through fifth-grade students. That’s $25 per student that parents won’t have to fork out at the beginning of the school year. 

I note that they are covering supplies for pre-k kids.  Interesting but I hope Seattle doesn't think that SPS will be footing the bill for their supplies any time soon.  

Another change for Evergreen district students is that middle and high school students will not have to pay most sports, performing arts and class fees. A high school student who plays one sport and participates in a performing arts program pays about $100 per year. Other activities have similar fees that will be waived.

Over the past seven years, Evergreen has funded all-day kindergarten from local levy dollars, said Gail Spolar, district spokeswoman. But now the state is reimbursing the district for most of that expense.

“We’ll able to redeploy local levy dollars toward poverty initiatives like this,” Spolar said.

Ah, and then we circle back to the real issue that is McCleary. Because districts were having to pay to provide full-day kindergarten, they didn't have resources for supplies.

My impression for SPS is that they do provide a lower cost to F/RL students for sports and class fees.  Parents?

Additionally, as the district moves to a 1-to-1 ratio of technology devices for students in grades 6 through 12, fewer school supplies will be needed, Spolar said.

Maybe on the supply side for consumables, but technology upkeep ain't cheap.