“I don’t understand what in the world the teachers want me to buy!”  “I can’t imagine why my child’s supplies seem to disappear ‘overnight’ from the backpack!” “I’m tired of last minute requests for material during the school year!” “You need it when?!?” “I don’t want to face those frustrating back-to-school check-out lines again!” “You need another glue stick!?!” “I went to 3 stores to find everything on the list and then the teacher added one more item!” “I don’t have time to go to the store tonight!” “Do you know how much I’ve already spent at Staples this month?!?”

Sound familiar? These quotes pretty much sum up the parents’ sentiments voiced over the years, and it’s not just at back-to-school time.  As fellow parents, we know the frustration continues month after month, from September to June, so we have a solution beginning with the 2010-11 school term.

A year ago we tried to address the Elementary French ‘cahier’ problem by charging a grade-specific “Cahier fee” at enrollment time which allowed us to supply elementary students with the mandatory notebooks and novels before school started and to replenish them throughout the school year as needed without parents having to worry about it all as they had in previous years.  Selling cahiers is definitely not our business – it is just a way to ensure that teachers and students have what they need in a timely manner to provide and benefit from LILA’s curriculum. The point is that the students and teachers do not suffer ‘down-time’ because of a lack of notebooks or appropriate novels at the same time. Teachers are happy and although the vast majority of parents appreciated the re-timing of the cahier expense and thought it was a wonderful solution, they also felt we hadn’t gone far enough to alleviate the whole process.

So, for 2010-11 we will finish the job and tackle the supplies debacle in a similar fashion.

The Materials Fee introduced to Elementary parents last year will be increased so LILA can cover the majority of supplies that your child will need year-long. This should not represent an additional expense for parents – we are just taking the ongoing headache away. The Materials Fee will be automatically added to enrollment agreements and can be paid with tuition through the SMART plan.  Beginning with the 2010-11 school year, elementary teachers will not ask parents to buy classroom supplies related to the everyday curriculum before or during the school year…ever; instead they will ask the campus administration for all material. The types of supplies covered by this fee are those that will be used in the classroom, and include: cahiers, novels, binders, glue sticks, sheet protectors, dry erase boards and erasers, pocket folders, markers, colored pencils, paints and brushes, dividers, index cards, rulers, dictionaries, cooking supplies and ingredients, glitter, and notebook paper.

Of course we do not want to completely remove each child’s individual personality from the process. Parents will still provide the standard pencil case (trusse) with such personal items as pencils, pens, erasers, and scissors. Books, novels, binders and cahiers may go home, but classroom supplies will not. It goes without saying, but students should already have their own basic supplies at home to do homework year after year.  A well-stocked homework center would include: markers, colored pencils, sharpener, ruler, compass and other math tools, dictionary, etc.

The Materials Fee will not cover items unrelated to the everyday curriculum. Examples of items not included are: field trips, testing, special events or costumes (i.e., Halloween, graduation, parties, Winterfest, Francophonie, etc.), yearbook, school pictures, lunch, uniforms, USB keys, transportation, etc.

The Materials Fee applies to all Preschool to 5^th grade students. If you have specific questions about what is covered by the $150 Materials Fee, please do not hesitate to ask your campus director.