Mesa Public Schools teachers find a friend in donor site

Yahoo

27-01-2025

Jan. 27—Jackie Luebbert has worked at Mesa Public Schools for 23 years and, like most teachers, has had to dig into her pocket to buy classroom supplies.
"I believe I spent somewhere around $500 a year," said Luebbert, who teaches second grade at Edison Elementary School, a Title 1 campus. "But honestly, I intentionally didn't keep track."
Well over 90% of teachers spend their own money on classroom supplies — on average between $500 and $750 a year, according to the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the country.
But thanks to DonorsChoose, Luebbert is now getting the financial help in the classroom.
The nonprofit fundraising platform connects teachers in high-need communities with donors. It is one of a number of such sites, which include SupplyATeacher.org, AdoptAClassroom.org and Classful.com.
"They have funded books, furniture, art and cleaning supplies and basic materials like pencils and glue," Luebbert said of DonorsChoose.
Some of the recently funded requests included nearly $400 for the purchase of classic fairytale and fable books, which the Gilbert resident told potential donors helps build life-long readers.
And there's the $3,600 donated to purchase a one-year subscription for the Aleks math application, an online program that "helps diagnose holes in students learning and can be used to target that learning for our kids," according to Luebbert.
Some of Luebbert's recent asks range from $400 for color paper, dry-erase markers and pencils to $800 for a flex-space mobile table that would allow her students to work in small collaborative groups and $230 for a microwave.
Students at the end of each month is rewarded with a "Popcorn Movie," for their work learning new skills, Luebbert said, adding that many hand-me-down microwaves ended up not working after popping a bag or two.
From 2000 to last Jan. 21, donors "have contributed $1.7 billion to support just over 3 million projects submitted by 938,738 teachers nationwide for classroom resources and experiences," according to spokesman Juan Brizuela.
For Mesa Public Schools in the same time frame, supporters have contributed $1 million to fund around 8,300 DonorsChoose projects submitted by over 2,800 teachers, Brizuela said.
He added that there are over 55,000 active projects from across the country on the site and for Mesa Public Schools, there are just over 80 active projects.
"Across the U.S. right now, the top resource type being requested is educational kits and learning games like flash cards, math games and phonics games," Brizuela said. "The same goes for Mesa Public Schools."
Some of the more unique requests DonorsChoose has seen coming out of MPS are wobble chairs to keep students engaged while learning at Edison Elementary; coffee supplies to help students run their own in-school business at Red Mountain High; and personal hygiene products for students at Westwood High School.
There's also the recent request from Dobson High teacher Kim Rogers for $175 in funding for a wheelchair.
According to Rogers, who did not respond to a request for comment, a wheelchair is needed to get her students to their destination after experiencing a seizure, which prevents them from navigating the campus.
"These students can walk and do it most of the time," she said in her request. "However, there has been many times when a fire drill or bus arrival or departure occurs right before or after a seizure or medical issue.
"After a seizure or similar medical issues, they are unable to maintain balance and control their movements, preventing them from walking.
"Normally we would just let the students rest until they feel better. However, there have been many times when the students have had an issue on the bus arriving at school and are not able to walk to class to rest. The same thing occurs when the student has an issue right before it is time to go home."
Nine donors funded Rogers' project.
Projects that are ineligible on DonorsChoose include — but are not limited to — capital improvements to a school building or campus, in-person class trip and in-person class-visitor projects, any items that will endanger students, technology that isn't approved by a teacher's district, cash requests, and anything that provides a financial benefit such as commission, profit, dividends to the teacher or their network of family and friends, Brizuela said.
"A teacher can create as many DonorsChoose projects as they'd like of any cost," he added.
According to Luebbert, over 13 years she's submitted over 150 projects and 59 were funded. DonorsChoose was created in 2000 by a Bronx public high school teacher.
All requests are first vetted by trained teacher volunteers before they are posted on DonorsChoose. Once a project is fully funded the nonprofit purchases the item and ships it directly to the verified teacher.
Although Luebbert teaches at a Title 1 campus, which gets supplemental federal dollars, though that funding was cut for the current school year. And if President Trump follows through on his campaign promise to ax the U.S. Department of Education, that Title 1 fund would go away.
At least 40% of a school's student body must be from low-income families in order to qualify for the additional funding to help close achievement gaps. At Edison, over half of its students are low-income, according to Luebbert.
She said that although Edison along with its PTO have some money to buy basic supplies, it doesn't cover everything.
"We have been told that budget cuts will further reduce available funds for next year," she said, which makes DonorsChoose even more invaluable.
"This program has provided the classroom supplies and supplementary materials needed to create a complete and immersive classroom," Luebbert said.