CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – If you walk into a classroom anywhere across the country you expect to see bulletin boards and walls covered with posters and charts. You may also expect students to be supplied with pencils, crayons and paper. Unfortunately, that is not the case in many school districts, including here in Massachusetts.
According to the National Center of Education Statistics, nearly all public school teachers are spending their own money to pay for classroom supplies, upwards of $600 a year each.
This week on 22News InFocus we talked about “Tools 4 Teaching,” a program created by a group of retired Springfield teachers who have decided to take on this issue and help out their younger colleagues by providing them necessary supplies.
If you’d like to help the “Tools 4 Teaching” program, or are interested in starting a program in your school district you can contact them via Facebook or go to their location at 70 Tapley Street, Springfield, in the Congressman Richard E. Neal Municipal Operations Center. Please use glassed-in front entrance and follow signs for Tools 4 Teaching.
They are open the second AND third Thursday of each month between 3:00 and 5:30 for drop-off AND/OR “shopping” for FREE materials.