School Supplies

Bulk supplies fee rather than shopping. We will continue to give you a break from back-to-school shopping.  We have switched to a “Supply Fee” that goes to the school to provide classroom supplies.  Buying bulk supplies saves a great deal of money and ensures quality materials for all students.  So what do you need to know:

Cost: $60 per student.  Scholarships and sponsorships available – see below.

How & when to pay:  At the start of August, families can pay the supply fee through our PTSA payment system on our PTSA site: https://newcastleptsa.ourschoolpages.com/Packet/School%20Supplies.  During EVP, our Enrollment Verification Process, you will be prompted to pay the Supply Fee.  You may also bring a check or cash to the school office if you prefer.

Sponsorships & Scholarships.  We understand that not all families can afford to pay $60 per child at Newcastle.  So when making supply payments the following options are available on an honor system.

      Full Pay: Pay for the full $60 supply fee for each child attending Newcastle Elementary.

      Sponsorship: Pay an extra $60 or $30 to provide a scholarship for another child attending Newcastle Elementary.

      If you cannot afford to pay the full supply fee for each child, you may choose the following:

      Partial Scholarship: Pay $30 toward supplies for each child attending Newcastle Elementary.

      Full Scholarship: Pay $0 toward supplies for each child attending Newcastle Elementary.

FAQ's 

How will this work?

The supply fee will be based on the supply lists that teachers created in past years and other fees form materials and will vary for each grade level.

Supply fee revenues will create a fund for each grade level team to order materials.  Periodically through the year the teacher teams will use these funds to order consumable and semi-consumable supplies for their classroom.

 What will be covered by the supply fee?

All classroom consumables that we traditionally included on classroom lists will be provided for students through the supply fee fund.  This includes notebooks, pencils, markers, tissues, pencil boxes, scissors, crayons, glue, wipes, rulers, etc.  ADDITIONALLY this fee will include other materials parents have traditionally paid for separately including planners, math templates and folders.

What will not be covered by the supply fee?

Anything that is not consumable and/or ultimately owned by the student will not be covered by the supply fee.  These will still need to be provided by parents.  Examples include backpacks, ear phones, flash drives, supplies for use at home, recorders for 4^th grade music, personal binders/organizers or optional materials.

 Why change?

We hope to improve the following:

• Quality materials for all students.  Some of the supplies we get now are not the type we find works best in class.  Also, we sometimes find we need additional supplies after lists are distributed.
• Waste reduction.  Currently we end up with excesses of some materials.  Even when we predict the right volume, excess packaging and travel goes into gathering the materials.  Bulk orders are more environmentally responsible.  For example: excess glue sticks but not enough crayons…
• Number of payment requests.  We will attempt to bundle all supplies and consumables we ask parents to provide and send to school over the year into this program.  By having the flexibility to buy as we need we will be able to bundle things like science fair supplies, planners and student subscriptions into one fee.
• Cost savings.  We get significant bulk discounts.  The supply fee would in general be 10-25% less than bundled kits including the same items.