How to Make the Shopping for School Supplies as Easy as ABC

By KAREN ALEXANDER

Aug. 25, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Whether a child is dreading the end of summer or counting the days until he or she can return to the classroom, one thing about the back to school season is certain: Parents are going to be shopping.

Clothes, lunch boxes, gym shorts, No. 2 pencils and book bags aside, this year parents are finding the return to school potentially more hectic--and expensive--than ever as schools lean increasingly on families for the everyday supplies that keep a classroom running.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. Aug. 26, 1999 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday August 26, 1999 Orange County Edition Metro Part B Page 12 Metro Desk 1 inches; 24 words Type of Material: Correction
School start dates--The first day of class for the Huntington Beach City School District was incorrect in a chart on Wednesday’s Education Page. The correct date is Sept. 7.

Parents are no longer expected just to deliver their kids well-rested, dressed and fed for the first day of school. From boxes of tissue to the right brand of eraser, children must start classes fully stocked with what is, at many schools, a very specific list of supplies.

Just look at what kindergartners are expected to have with them when they arrive for the first day at Top of the World Elementary School in Laguna Beach: a 4-ounce bottle of Elmer’s white glue, one set of marking pens, thick (not thin) long colored pencils, waterless antibacterial soap (Purell), one box of tissues, a handful of Band-Aids and 5-inch Stockwell--not Fiskars--scissors.

The school’s second-graders, on the other hand, have a list of 10 required items that includes Fiskars--not Stockwell--scissors.

Such lists can mean a frantic round of shopping after the first day of school, when the shelves are picked over and the lines are long. But in many districts parents are getting a jump on the shopping frenzy, thanks to the planning of teachers and a handful of ultra-organized parents.

Not only are many schools handing out the list of needed supplies well in advance of the first day of class, but at some schools there are volunteer parent groups that will order the supplies for you. You write the check and the supplies will be waiting on your child’s desk on the first day of class.

Leslie Lindgren, PTA president at Turtle Rock Elementary in Irvine, recalls the days when she had to round up the supplies for her three kids: “It really becomes a logistical nightmare.”

Now Lindgren helps organize a massive effort that enables parents at Turtle Rock to pre-order their supplies from the PTA. All of the products come from one supplier, who uses lists from each teacher to pack a separate bundle of supplies for each student, individually packed in shrink wrap.

Chris Ebert, an account manager at the Dallas-based supply firm Educational Products Inc., says demand for the company’s shrink-wrapped school packs has grown so dramatically in Orange County that he will move from Texas to Costa Mesa in January. “Orange County has really taken off for us,” he said.

Ebert provides the packs to 25 schools in Orange County, mostly through their respective PTAs. Last year, the company served about 3,200 schools nationwide; sales have been growing 25% to 30% each year, he said.

EPI promises to beat any retail store’s prices. But while most schools around the country offer the packs to students at cost, Ebert says that nearly all of his California clients charge extra, using the product as a PTA fund-raiser.

At Turtle Rock, the packages cost between $20 and $40, depending on the need for big-ticket items such as the multi-function calculator that one math teacher requires. Last year the school offered the packages at cost, but this year the PTA increased the price by a couple of dollars per student to raise money.

“It’s still competitively priced to where it would be if you had to go buy it yourself,” Lindgren said.

While the parents of kindergartners at Top of the World will have to find those 5-inch scissors on their own, the school’s PTA will order supplies in bulk for the entire fifth grade under a pilot program.

Parent volunteers solicited bids from several companies to provide all the supplies in one shot. The cost is $20 per child. Organizers don’t know how many families will participate in the voluntary program, but they have ordered enough materials for the whole grade.

Megan Mayer, a PTA member at Top of the World who helped organize the project, said many parents have opted to sponsor children in addition to their own to make sure no one is left out.

The fifth-grade starter kits cost less than half of what it would cost for parents to go out and buy all the supplies on their own. But Mayer admits that some children really like back-to-school shopping and want the opportunity to pick out their own stuff.

“They can still, of course, get their own things, but this way the idea was that every child could sit down the first day of school having exactly what they needed to start learning,” Mayer said.

Lindgren said that despite all of the PTA’s work, her kids also want to shop for some things themselves. “Those kids care what’s on their notebook and what kind of backpack they have,” she said.

Office supply stores are also catering to back-to-school needs. The chains consider this time of year as important to them as the Christmas season is to toy marketers.

At several Staples locations in Orange County, store managers are getting in touch with local schools to find out what the children will need. They keep the lists on file at their stores, where they are provided to shoppers with notes on which aisle each item can be found, Staples spokesperson Shannon Lapierre said.

Some Office Depot locations provide a similar service.

Lindgren estimates that she will spend between 10 and 20 hours organizing the supply orders for Turtle Rock. Nevertheless, she knows her children will need some supplies during the year that they just can’t predict in advance. So she stocks up every fall on items like poster board.

“I buy things that I have determined over time I will be needing,” Lindgren said. “I finally realized that the mothers who didn’t look like they were hysterical all day long had these stockpiles in their garages.”

When the Districts Open the Doors

Time to sharpen pencils and dust off that graphing calculator: Classes are about to start for Orange County public school students. Here’s the start date for the county’s 27 school districts. Schedules differ for some students--particularly those who attend year-round schools.

* Anaheim City: year-round

* Anaheim Union: Sept. 9

* Brea Olinda Unified: Sept. 1*

* Buena Park: Sept. 7

* Capistrano Unified: Sept. 9**

* Centralia: Sept. 7

* Cypress: Sept. 7****

* Fountain Valley: Sept. 8

* Fullerton Joint Union: Sept. 2

* Fullerton: Sept. 7

* Garden Grove Unified: Sept. 9

* Huntington Beach City: Sept. 9