Community-Wide Donation Lightens Load for Crane Elementary Parents
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June 14, 2018
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Crane kindergarten students hone their caterpillar drawing skills in Ms. Funcannon’s art class during summer school.
Shana Harter
Parents of school age children know all too well how expensive school supplies are. Each year, parents everywhere are tasked with filling shopping carts with items from their child’s school supply list. Families spend an average of $40-$75 per student, depending on the classroom requirements, as well as whether one bargain shops or not. For many families, especially those with multiple children, this expense can quickly run into hundreds of dollars. This expense, coupled with the expense of new school clothes, creates a hardship for many families across our community. Crane Elementary principal, Kelly Rogers says, “It’s not so much that our students go without the supplies they need, but how many other things may these families go without in order to purchase school supplies?”
Recently, the announcement was made that Crane Elementary has received a donation for the purchase of school supplies for its students. This donation has been made to purchase school supplies for all 325 students at Crane Elementary. This includes all students in grades Pre-K through 6th grade, regardless of family income. While the donors wish to remain anonymous, the school says this was a community-wide donation organized in conjunction with the Crane Ministerial Alliance.
Each student will have every item on their school supply list provided, with the exception of a backpack. Students may pick up his or her free classroom supplies at Open House in August.
Brenda and Doug Minton have five children in the Crane school district, with three at the elementary level. The Mintons see this donation as a blessing, not only for the school and students, but for the entire community. Brenda says, “With five children returning to school, this will have a big impact on our family; $150-$200 and I believe it will make a huge difference for many families in the community.” Brenda mentions that teachers will most likely benefit as well since they often buy supplies out of their own pockets to make up the difference for students who don’t have everything they need.
The free supplies will be available to every student regardless of household income. The only requirement to claim your child’s free supplies is that parents must fill out the free/reduced lunch form. The school wants to stress the fact that your child need not qualify for free or reduced lunches in order to claim free supplies, the application simply needs to be filled out and returned.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential childcare institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. The program was established under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946.
It is important to note that the primary source of federal funding for elementary and secondary schools is the Title I-A program.
The number and percentage of a school’s students from low-income families are used to allocate Title I-A grants to schools and to determine whether a school is eligible to use Title I-A funds to operate specific programs. Even if you do not qualify for the program, filling out the NSLP application is a vital step in the district securing these federal funds which benefit all children throughout the district.
Rogers says, “We are just completely blessed and overwhelmed by the generous support we have received from the Crane Community.”
Parents of school age children know all too well how expensive school supplies are. Each year, parents everywhere are tasked with filling shopping carts with items from their child’s school supply list. Families spend an average of $40-$75 per student, depending on the classroom requirements, as well as whether one bargain shops or not. For many families, especially those with multiple children, this expense can quickly run into hundreds of dollars. This expense, coupled with the expense of new school clothes, creates a hardship for many families across our community. Crane Elementary principal, Kelly Rogers says, “It’s not so much that our students go without the supplies they need, but how many other things may these families go without in order to purchase school supplies?”
Recently, the announcement was made that Crane Elementary has received a donation for the purchase of school supplies for its students. This donation has been made to purchase school supplies for all 325 students at Crane Elementary. This includes all students in grades Pre-K through 6th grade, regardless of family income. While the donors wish to remain anonymous, the school says this was a community-wide donation organized in conjunction with the Crane Ministerial Alliance.
Each student will have every item on their school supply list provided, with the exception of a backpack. Students may pick up his or her free classroom supplies at Open House in August.
Brenda and Doug Minton have five children in the Crane school district, with three at the elementary level. The Mintons see this donation as a blessing, not only for the school and students, but for the entire community. Brenda says, “With five children returning to school, this will have a big impact on our family; $150-$200 and I believe it will make a huge difference for many families in the community.” Brenda mentions that teachers will most likely benefit as well since they often buy supplies out of their own pockets to make up the difference for students who don’t have everything they need.
The free supplies will be available to every student regardless of household income. The only requirement to claim your child’s free supplies is that parents must fill out the free/reduced lunch form. The school wants to stress the fact that your child need not qualify for free or reduced lunches in order to claim free supplies, the application simply needs to be filled out and returned.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential childcare institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. The program was established under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946.
It is important to note that the primary source of federal funding for elementary and secondary schools is the Title I-A program.
The number and percentage of a school’s students from low-income families are used to allocate Title I-A grants to schools and to determine whether a school is eligible to use Title I-A funds to operate specific programs. Even if you do not qualify for the program, filling out the NSLP application is a vital step in the district securing these federal funds which benefit all children throughout the district.
Rogers says, “We are just completely blessed and overwhelmed by the generous support we have received from the Crane Community.”