Schools get supplies Public school teachers, who often dip into their own pockets for classroom supplies, are getting a bit of a Christmas bonus with the closure of the state's much-maligned central storeroom.
as a Christmas gift
The state is closing its storeroom
and giving supplies to teachersBy Susan Essoyan
sessoyan@starbulletin.comThe state Department of Education is distributing leftover supplies -- from crayons to construction paper -- free to teachers statewide before the storeroom shuts down for good on Dec. 31.
"It sounded too good to be true, but it turned out to be true," said Kalakaua Middle School art teacher Karen Miura, who took a break from Christmas preparations to pick up clay and paint at Farrington High School on Monday.
"I would never be able to buy this kind of clay because it's so expensive," she said. "The kids are going to be lucky this semester."
The state auditor lambasted the central storeroom as a "dinosaur" and waste of money in a report last January, and Gov. Ben Cayetano signed a law in June to eliminate it.
The centralized system was set up 30 years ago to reduce costs for the state's 260 public schools by buying supplies in bulk. But the storeroom built up huge inventories, wound up with obsolete items, and was slow to deliver goods, the auditor found.
In recent months, the storeroom has sold as much of its inventory as it could to schools, at discounted prices. The rest is being divided among the state's 15 school complexes, with each receiving 16 pallets of goods, according to Chris Ito, accounting director for the Business Services Office.
The pallets measure 4-feet-by-4-feet, he said, but he could not put a value on the items because it varies from when they were first bought.
Teachers in the Honolulu district are stopping by Farrington High School, McKinley High School and Wilson Elementary School this week to take their pick on a first-come, first-served basis, according to complex-area superintendent Francine Fernandez.
Each school complex is handling distribution of the leftover goods individually, and some teachers won't be receiving the supplies until January, Ito said.
"It'll be like a second Christmas," said Donna Whitford, complex-area superintendent for central Maui. "We're looking forward to it."
With the demise of the storeroom, schools can now buy supplies from local stores, or use price lists generated by the state for vendors who will deliver the goods directly to the schools, Ito said.
Fernandez and Miura said that although the storeroom had its problems, it was a convenient, inexpensive way to stock up at the beginning of school, rather than having to shop from various vendors.
"It was the backbone of my program because they provided the basic materials I needed at the lowest price," Miura said. "I don't know what we're going to do now. Everything's so expensive."
The Waipahu warehouse, with roughly 23,000 square feet of space, supplied schools with everything from pens to basketballs. The auditor's report found that it took three to four weeks to deliver supplies to Oahu schools and six to eight weeks to the Neighbor Islands.
The lease on the storeroom and office space runs to 2005, but the state is negotiating with its landlord to end its $300,000 annual rental contract, Ito said.
State Department of Education
State of Hawaii
