Back-to-School Windfall for Teachers

By Ann K. Williams
Staff Writer

August 26 -- Labor Day is just around the corner and back-to-school shoppers are already heading to office supply stores and ringing up tabs in the hundreds of dollars.

Negotiating the crowds of frayed parents and kids who really, really need rainbow unicorn binders are teachers who are feeling the crunch as they stock up on classroom supplies that cash-strapped school districts can’t afford to provide.

California Teacher of the Year Ray Williams with Macerich Vice President Susan Valentine cutting the ribbon Friday at Santa Monica Place. (Photos by Gene Williams)

But teachers will get some help this year from Macerich Company, the national retail developer which owns Santa Monica Place, where company officials joined two honored teachers and some three dozen children and their parents Friday morning to kick off its “Teachers Supply Closet” program.

The innovative partnership between business, consumers and educators is “a national program held at all of Macerich’s centers across the United States focusing on each individual community,” explained Senior Vice President of Marketing Susan Valentine.

California Teacher of the year Ray Williams was happy to do business with Macerich.

“Education is about building partnerships,” Williams said. “This is a perfect example of how businesses across California are stepping up to build a bridge and support education.

“As long as we are working together, we can make a difference in children’s lives,” Williams added. “Here is a golden opportunity to make a difference. I know teachers, including myself, that personally spend more than $1,000 on supplies for their classrooms.”

A 39-year veteran of the profession, Williams was speaking from experience. He spent about $1,400 last year on his classroom and says his wife and son, who are also teachers, spend similar amounts each year.

“Teachers are spending a lot of money out of their own pockets, and I don’t believe a lot of people know that,” Williams said. “A lot of what you see in a classroom is bought by teachers. Our teachers are subsidizing education.

“If you are going to meet California standards and make the classroom exciting, you have to do that,” Williams said.

L. A. County Teacher of the Year Sylvia Padilla told the children at Friday’s gathering that teachers “spend a lot of money because they care about each one of you.”

L.A. County Teacher of the Year Sylvia Padilla adresses the crowd

Padilla, who’s taught kindergarten for 10 years and who’s already spent $300 on this year’s classroom, said she buys “all the little things that make the classroom colorful and a happy place to be.”

The Macerich Company wants to offset some of their out-of-pocket expenses.

Santa Monica Place will be collecting school supplies that will be donated to local schools for distribution to their teachers, Valentine said.

Shoppers can also buy “Teachers Supply Closet Gift Cards” to give directly to teachers which they can spend where they please.

“We kicked it off at the home office,” Valentine said, pointing to the large plastic tubs filled with notebooks, pencils, markers and other school supplies that had been donated by Macerich Company and its employees.

“We have already sold $300,000 of the gift cards,” she added.

Melinda Markle came bearing gifts with her two children, ages seven and one.

“I’m glad they’re doing this because our schools really need it,” Markle said. “It’s not that teachers have the greatest salary in the world.”

But the donated supplies don't just help teachers, they help their students too.

Nearly two-thirds of the teachers interviewed in a survey conducted for Macerich said they taught students who came from low-income and lower-middle class families -- families for whom a September $100-per-kid tab at Office Depot may be beyond their means.

The Guest Service Center on the second floor of Santa Monica Place next to Forever 21 is the headquarters of Teachers Supply Closet, where teachers are encouraged to drop off their wish lists.

Shoppers can go there to check the wish lists and drop off supplies and parents can get “Teachers Supply Closet Gift Cards,” practical gifts teachers can use at any store that accepts VISA.

To find out more about the Macerich Company’s Teacher Supply Closet drive, visit www.WeMakeGoodThingsHappen.com

Gene Williams contributed to this report