The Accidental School Spy, Part 2

[Robert Urbanek]

In 2002 I worked for several months as a part time substitute clerk/typist for a school district.

At one elementary school, I helped unpack several boxes of supplies. One package included several bottles of white-out, which seemed a strange order given that computers and computer printers had apparently replaced typewriters.

As I was unpacking these materials, the principal came on the public address system to inform teachers that they should be sure to order supplies, warning them if they didn’t spend the money, they would lose it. (After all, it’s only taxpayer money.)

At another school, I had to unpack a few boxes of heavyweight paper in assorted colors that were apparently used for various art projects. There was already a large supply of such paper in the storeroom, and I had difficulty finding room for the new supply.

I had recalled several news stories in which teachers said they had to pay for school supplies out of their own pocket. Given the abundance of supplies in this district, I wondered if this teacher “out of pocket” expense was often really a publicity stunt intended to divert public attention from more substantive issues, such as the cost of teacher pensions.

 

[Dekster]

It is a bigger problem in the military. Come under budget one quarter on something and the budget gets automatically cut going forward. It is why a lot of things "accidentally" fall off ships

 

[depotoo]

It is a bigger problem in the military. Come under budget one quarter on something and the budget gets automatically cut going forward. It is why a lot of things "accidentally" fall off ships

Unfortunately, in many governmental agencies.

 

[luchitociencia]

When July arrives,tthe who government agencies get crazy spending most of the money, in order to have a "deficit" at the beginning of September and present a greater needed budget for October.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Here is the problem with your little anecdote. In our state, the powers that be decided to help schools save money by not buying new textbooks. They didn't do this for a year or two. They did it for about 7! Teachers had to buy duct tape out of their own pockets to tape the textbooks back together. Then, when they simply no longer were usable, we were told to download and print worksheets off of the Internet. Then we were limited on the number of copies we made because the copiers were always breaking down under the increased load, and there was no money to repair them in the budget. Do you know how many times I went to the local Office Depot or Kinko's to get copies made so I could actually teach math? I paid for that out of my pocket! Getting 135-150 sets of 2-3 pages each was not cheap!

Because we couldn't have copies of examples in a textbook or on a handout, we were forced to work all of the problems on a SmartBoard and the students had to copy them. The problem was that none of them ever had any notebook paper or pencils to write with. I usually bought about $100 worth of notebook paper at the beginning of the school year when it was on sale and as many pencils as I could get. Then when that ran out I was buying every pack of notebook paper the store had and a two large package of pencils, containing 72 pencils each.

Now try teaching history with out a textbook! Teachers were reduced to putting the information on PowerPoint slides! Wow! Death by PowerPoint in middle school! The note-taking there was an issue also, because no one had paper or pencils.

Those are my personal anecdotes of teacher supplies.

 

[SweetSue92]

In 2002 I worked for several months as a part time substitute clerk/typist for a school district.

At one elementary school, I helped unpack several boxes of supplies. One package included several bottles of white-out, which seemed a strange order given that computers and computer printers had apparently replaced typewriters.

As I was unpacking these materials, the principal came on the public address system to inform teachers that they should be sure to order supplies, warning them if they didn’t spend the money, they would lose it. (After all, it’s only taxpayer money.)

At another school, I had to unpack a few boxes of heavyweight paper in assorted colors that were apparently used for various art projects. There was already a large supply of such paper in the storeroom, and I had difficulty finding room for the new supply.

I had recalled several news stories in which teachers said they had to pay for school supplies out of their own pocket. Given the abundance of supplies in this district, I wondered if this teacher “out of pocket” expense was often really a publicity stunt intended to divert public attention from more substantive issues, such as the cost of teacher pensions.

Sure sure.

Sure

One day, back in 1991 when I was working at a temp agency, I did a temp stint in a drs office. There I saw the dr writing scripts illegally for all his friends and extended family, mostly for opiates, barbituates and other mind-altering drugs. Since I saw this once many years ago, I'm sure it's a huge and pervasive problem everywhere, and I'm sure what I saw doing this temp gig many years ago is totally representative of all doctors everywhere.

After all, I'm an undercover spy.