WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Local teachers are utilizing donation platforms like Amazon Wishlists and Donors Choose to help supply additional items for their classrooms.
- Many local schools have received community donations this year
- Waco ISD gives every teacher $300 for classroom supplies
- The Waco ISD education foundation gave every educator new to teaching an additional $300
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Blanca Alvidrez tells me she loves to see her dual language kindergarten students dream big.
"It is our creativity as teachers to go ahead and promote the child's creativity," Alvidrez said.
But supporting those big dreams can come at a cost.
"We rely on donations quite a bit."
She says this school year, she's received more than $500 in donations and spent $200 of her own pocket for her classroom— that's on top of receiving financial support from the district.
Waco ISD gives every teacher $300 for classroom supplies and the Waco ISD education foundation gave every educator new to teaching an additional $300.
"They support us with everything else that we might need as teachers for the basic but then above and beyond what our creativity entitles or we want to do, then that's what we go out and we choose donors to provide that for us that also support the children, like I said, in many other levels," Alvidrez said.
Amazon wishlists and Donors Choose are two platforms teachers use for donations.
Sage Cavazos is new to Waco ISD but says last year when he taught in a different school district, he spent $3,000 of his own money on supplies.
"It would cover pencils, glue, clothes, water bottles, all the basic supplies that my students really needed to succeed, because they either were not getting them at home or if my school wasn't able to provide them at the time due to additional funds," Cavazos said.
He received $17,000 in donations through donors choose.
"I was able to receive bicycle desks for my students, manipulatives, classroom water bottles, really anything I could ever want as a classroom teacher," he said.
He says many of those extra supplies impact the students positively.
"They would be able to go home in something that they could call theirs, where a lot of my students did not have that privilege to call a lot of things theirs — so seeing that smile, seeing their enthusiasm after they got it, it made everything worth it," Cavazos said.
