Teachers find low-cost and free treasures at Tempe shop
BY RALPH ZUBIATE Tribune Managing Editor
Last year, the average teacher spent about $500 out of his or her own pocket for classroom supplies, according to the Education Market Association. One in 10 spent $1,000 or more.
All told, that’s about $1.6 billion in supplies that parents and school districts nationwide expect teachers to pay for. Treasures 4 Teachers in Tempe is trying
to help reduce that cost.
With a warehouse full of donated materials, Treasures 4 Teachers offers educators low-cost and free books, art supplies, office supplies and pretty much everything you can think of.
Barbara Blalock, the founder and executive director, came up with the idea when she visited a second-grade classroom in 2004.
According to the Treasures’ website, the teacher asked her students to get out a piece of paper and pencil. A young girl
went up to the teacher and gave up her shoe, for which the teacher gave her a pencil.
Blalock found out the teacher didn’t have enough pencils, so she made students give up a shoe to borrow one, knowing that they wouldn’t leave with the pencil and without their shoe.
Blalock realized she wanted to help make sure all teachers had enough resources – and that kids kept their shoes.
page 2 SETON, page 4
TEMPE UNION, page 8
START DATES
School districts across the East Valley are preparing to begin the new school year. Here are the main area districts and their start dates:
Chandler Unified – July 24
Gilbert Unified – Aug. 2
Higley Unified – July 24
Kyrene Elementary – Aug. 3
Mesa Unified – Aug. 8
Queen Creek Unified – July 25
Tempe Elementary – Aug. 7
Tempe Union – Aug. 7 Sunday, July 16, 2017
(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Staff Photographer)
Heather Maxwell sorts through books in a guided reading program. Maxwell ended up purchasing baskets to display books in her Litchfield Park classroom.
Chandler Schools chief: Judge us by our grads
BY CAMILLE CASTEEL Tribune Guest Writer
As we make final preparations for the start of the 2017-2018 school year, I want to take this opportunity to thank the families of 45,000 students for choosing Chandler Unified School District as their educational provider.
In CUSD, parents may choose from a menu of personalized learning experiences that best meet the needs of their children.
We know you have choices and we work hard to ensure a safe, learning environment for students with many backgrounds and learning styles.
We are known as a premier district of choice. Academic achievement is a high priority in the district as evidenced by test scores that exceed state and national averages.
We pride ourselves on providing outstanding educational programs at all grade levels, including:
• Mandarin Chinese and Spanish immersion programs,
• Elite Performance Academy for our serious young student-athletes,
• Accelerated Middle School,
• STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) diploma,
• Nationally recognized academic, fine arts and athletic programs,
• College preparatory advanced placement instruction,
• Accelerated International Baccalaureate study,
• Science and biotech classes that promote critical thinking,
• Chandler Online program,
• Access to a variety of preschool and afterschool programming.
Our governing board is visionary and is determined to make Chandler Unified the top school district in the nation through its Journey 2025 10year strategic plan.
It focuses on four areas: outstanding students, world-class employees, organizational culture and effective resource management.
Each year, the board determines keys strategies and adopts metrics to measure our success.
Please visit our website at cusd80.com to view our progress.
In order to meet those high standards, our teachers and staff work hard to prepare students for life and career, have diverse paths for learning, create global understanding, provide studentcentered learning and engage parents in the success of their child.
Our students are problem solvers, engaged learners, service-oriented, ethical, value diversity and think critically and creatively.
Judge us by the graduates we produce.
In addition to state and national honors in academics, fine arts and sports, CUSD’s 2017 graduating class earned more than $118 million in college scholarship offers, 30,096 college credit hours and nearly 113,000 service learning hours.
As you can see, I am very proud of the accomplishments of our students and dedicated staff.
I am so confident that we can find the right school environment for your child that I invite you to contact my office at 480-812-7600, so that my staff and I can assist with placement for this year.
– Camille Casteel is the superintendent of Chandler Unified School District.
(Special to the Tribune)
Chandler Schools Superintendent Camille Casteel says students graduate from her district schools as engaged leaders, problem solvers and serviceoriented citizens.
New principal in charge at Seton Catholic Prep
Anew principal has taken the helm of Seton Catholic Preparatory in Chandler.
Victor M. Serna was appointed to the East Valley’s only Catholic college preparatory high school by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted.
Serna replaces Pat Collins, who retired in the spring after serving the school in various capacities since 1992, including the past 12 years as principal.
Prior to arriving at Seton, Serna was a Master Principal, chosen by the director of Catholic Education in the Los Angeles archdiocese to form, advise and train Catholic leaders.
“My wife Evelyn and I are excited to become part of the Sentinel community,” said Serna. “I consider myself blessed to serve my faith through the ministry of Catholic education. I believe in educating the whole person through a rigorous curriculum, access to co-curricular and extra-curricular activities including leadership opportunities and service to others, personal support, and daily encounters with Christ.”
Prior to joining Seton Catholic, Serna held the position of principal at St. Turibius Catholic School in Los Angeles since 2013.
Prior to that, he served as assistant principal and dean of students at his alma mater, Bishop Mora Salesian High School in Los Angles. He also served as athletic director of St. Mary Catholic School and associate athletic director at the Salesian Family Youth Center, both in LA.
Serna earned a B.S. in criminal justice from California State University and master’s degrees in secondary education and educational administration from Mount St. Mary’s University. He is in the process of completing his third master’s degree in instructional leadership.
He has received Catholic leadership training through the Notre Dame University Alliance for Catholic Education and through the Salesian Leadership Institute for Ministry with the Salesians of Don Bosco, Western Providence.
Serna and his wife live in Gilbert.
Seton is a private, coeducational high school in Chandle open to students of all faiths.
Information: setoncatholic.org.
AGES 3 TO 13 YEARS OLD!
Staff
(Special to the Tribune)
Victor Serna, the new principal at Seton Catholic Preparatory in Chandler, helped train principals through a program run by the Los Anegeles Catholic Archdiocese.
This Tempe Union official is delighted to welcome a new school year
BY JENNIFER LIEWER Tribune Guest Writer
Growing up, the thought of going back to school didn’t exactly make me happy.
Sure, I enjoyed school as much as the next kid, but the end of summer vacation made me sad. It meant the end of sleeping in, spending hours in a swimming pool, working at the local movie theater, playing video games at the arcade, traveling to visit family in other states and doing a whole lot of nothing.
Now, for the first time in my life, I can’t wait for school to start.
Hired as the new executive director of community relations for the Tempe Union High School District, I joined the team with just three weeks left of the school year, and it was a whirlwind.
I attended sports banquets, baseball playoffs, watched students race in boats made from cardboard and duct tape, touted the remarkable accomplishments of the class of 2017 and was honored to participate in graduation ceremonies at Compadre Academy and Tempe High School.
It was the best beginning to a new job
that I had ever experienced.
Before I knew it, the school year was over, but I wanted more. I wanted to meet more teachers, talk with more students and engage with more of the amazing East Valley community that I was just getting to know.
And, I wanted to share more stories about all that was going on in our seven high schools and shout about them from the mountains. I quickly realized I would need to wait.
Even though things didn’t stop once the students left and the work of the Tempe Union High School District continued, there was a very different feel when I came to work each day. It was a quieter. A little less hectic. There was more of a focus on evaluating, planning and preparing.
Our governing board held public meetings to ensure budgets were approved, policies were updated and staff would have the resources they needed on Aug. 7. There was planning and training and, for me, learning the roles and responsibilities of my new job.
There was a lot of hard work going on to ensure that TUHSD was prepared to continue to provide the educational excellence that our community needs,
In fact, we are all ready. We are ready to welcome the class of 2021. Ready to meet new teachers and learn from those who have been teaching for years. We are ready to cheer for our teams until we are hoarse and prepared to stay silent when two schools from our district compete against each other because we know we don’t have a favorite.
I also know I am ready to say goodbye to summer and for the first time, enthusiastically head back to school. If this upcoming year is anything like my first three weeks on the job, it is sure to be amazing.
And, if the students of Tempe High, McClintock, Marcos de Niza, Corona del Sol, Mountain Pointe, Desert Vista and Compadre Academy are anything like I was in high school and sad that their summer is over, they should know that they have a mass of teachers, administrators, support staff, coaches, bus drivers, custodial staff, guidance counselors, and one VERY excited community relations director who can’t wait for them to come back!
deserves and has come to expect. However, recently I have found myself saying, “Enough already. Let’s get this school year started! I am ready.”
• Rated ‘A’ by the AZ Dept of Education
• Traditional academics, enforced dress code
• Wide variety of extracurricular sports and arts opportunities
-Jennifer Liewer is executive director of community relations for Tempe Union High School District.
(Special to the Tribune)
Jennifer Liewer, foreground, Tempe Union High School District’s new community relatives director, attended Compadre Academy’s graduation with associate superintendents Anna Battle, rear, and Kim Hilgers.
Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic School
Sino International Montessori School
Arrange
Chinese Learning Program
The Chinese and English dual language curriculum is patterned as closely as possible after the native language experience. The Chinese teachers follow each child’s developed interests and learning paces to plan individual lessons and small group activities to assist children in acquiring the Chinese culture and language naturally throughout each day.
Casa dei Bambini (ages 2 ½ - 6)
The scientifically designed classrooms provide children with a language-rich opportunity to maximize the child’s exposure to the world.
-Practical life Activities
-Sensorial Activities
-Mathematic and Geometry
-Mandarin Chinese & English Language Learning
-Science and Cultural Studies
-Suzuki Violin instruction is integrated into our music curriculum.
So, Treasures 4 Teachers was born.
Treasures relies mostly on corporate donations for its stock.
“We got a lot of donations from manufacturers,” Blalock said. “We get things from OfficeMax, Target, Jo-Ann, Staples. We have an ongoing donation from Staples every month.”
Last month, Treasures gave out an electronic stapler from Staples with a $10 purchase.
Treasures also gets unusual donations, “things you wouldn’t expect,” Blalock said.
through boxes and looking at the books in a reading program kit. She was in Tempe this time because her daughter is in a drama club nearby.
“I got a box of file folders last time. And a set of shelves, but they didn’t fit in the car, so I had to come back,” she said.
“Ping gives us beanbags” –actually moisture-absorbing bags that can be used as beanbags. “Ikea gives a lot of different things,” she says, pointing to a bin full of purple candles.
Boeing gives them plastic caps from airplane panels. A medical supplier gives them plastic tubing that can be used for crafts or decorating.
They’ve accepted carpet squares, wallpaper and fabric samples. Lately, a bin full of picture frame corners – just the corners – has been available. Last spring, big boxes of leftover Christmas ornaments were there for the taking.
Treasures also takes donations of used items or money from the public. Teachers can find old board games, notebooks, shoeboxes and cardboard tubes.
The items they get are offered to teachers at a tiny price, from free to $1 for a bag full of things and $5 for a bigger bag. They also have furniture, office chairs and bookcases.
The $5 Fill-A-Bag gives the most bang for the buck, Blalock says. Teachers usually fill those bags with brand-new donated books.
“A man gets them from his book sources,” she said. “What he doesn’t want, he donates. He brings them by the pallet.”
“Fill-A-Bag is really cool,” said Heather Maxwell, a fifth-grade teacher at Litchfield Elementary in Litchfield Park.
She makes the long drive because she feels it’s worth it.
“I’d say that I spend at least $300-400 a year out of pocket,” she said. “This helps.”
Maxwell and other teacher friends found out about Treasures 4 Teachers and decided they needed to check it out.
“The first time I was here, there were about six or seven of us on a field trip,” she said.
One recent morning, she was going
“I buy a lot of books for my classroom. I get extra supplies, free three-ring binders. I’m pretty sure they don’t have anything like this anywhere.”
Once, she grabbed a bunch of old VHS cassette cases for free. She had sets of fraction strips for each student, and she used each case to hold a full set. Each student then had their own set perfectly contained.
Like Maxwell, teachers are pretty good at coming up with uses for the treasures. But here, they have help.
“Our volunteers create kits from the stuff they get,” Blalock said. “That way, it’s ready to use.”
Treasures 4 Teachers has 115 volunteers and 13 staff members.
Memberships, which last a school year, are $35. Treasures 4 Teachers also offers
“scholarships” to cover the cost for first-year or needy teachers.
“The Tempe Diablos help with that,” Blalock said. “They’ve been great about giving us funding for memberships.”
Last school year, Treasures gave away boxes full of supplies to teachers. Each box had sets of pens, pencils, rulers, pencil cases, liquid glue and glue sticks, markers, crayons and more. More boxes full of supplies will be given out this school year, too.
Treasures is trying to spread the idea around. There’s another Treasures 4 Teachers in Tucson. Members can shop both locations.
When the Tucson location opened, Treasures wondered how they’d get some of their donated items down there.
“But as soon as they opened, donations started pouring in,” Blalock said. “They’re self-sustaining.”
Treasures has a mobile program, too.
“Thunderbird Charities gave us $25,000 to go to schools that need school supplies,” Blalock said. “We give them out for free.
“It’s a win-win for the businesses, teachers, students and the environment. Seventy-five percent of the donated items would have ended up in a landfill.”
Treasures 4 Teachers is at 3025 South 48th St., Suite 101, Tempe. Shopping hours are Tuesday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Check-in ends 15 minutes prior to close. Information: 480-751-1122, treasures4teachers.org, facebook.com/Treasures4Teachers.org.
(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Staff Photographer) Bins chock-full of plastic pieces, pens, pipe cleaners and more can be used to fill a bag for $1.
(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune) Barbara Blalock says Treasures 4 Teachers tries to do something special for teachers every day during the summer.
