Starting her first year as an instructor’s assistant at the Thelma B. Johnson Learning Center, Alexsia Savage says it’s hard to know what exactly she’ll need in the classroom.
Rickara Hughes, who will teach at South Middle School in the fall, was in a similar predicament a couple years ago when she began her teaching career and agrees that young teachers may not know what they’ll need as the year starts.
Both Savage and Hughes were doing a little bit of classroom shopping Friday, looking for supplies that they may need.
But the store they were at is different than any other: its prices are free.
Friday marked the grand opening of the Henderson Kentucky Teacher Store, a project from a group of the most recent Henderson Leadership Initiative. The teacher store offers supplies to teachers at every school in the Henderson County Schools system and Holy Name School for free.
Hughes said she may not know all that she needs, or the teacher store may not have what she’s looking for, but with the teacher store’s suggestion box, she can drop a note and check back later.
“Even if I didn’t grab it today, I can come back,” said Hughes, who spent her first two years teaching at Browning Springs Middle School in Madisonville.
The new store’s approval also was echoed by veteran teachers, Carla Bender and Wendi Bailey, who will both be teaching at Jefferson Elementary School in the upcoming year.
Bender said the school system offers a stipend to cover supplies, but it only goes so far. She said she’ll get $200 for supplies this year, but she normally spends $400 or $500.
“So much of our own money goes into our classrooms,” Bender said.
The store, located at Central Academy in a room that opens to Alvasia Street, holds a variety of supplies, ranging erasers, pens and journals to scissors, glue sticks and masking tape.
To use the teacher store, teachers will be given a set amount of points to use. They will be allowed to obtain items that are priced by points and can obtain items up to their total points each quarter. Teachers will be given a new point allotment each quarter.
The teacher store is a project that came from a group of the most recent graduating class of the HLI. The group consists of Winston Chaney, Shawna Harrington, Tyler Comer, Adam Blythe, Maggie Whitledge, Katie Kirkwood and Marcos Nicolas, Jr.
Soon after the January graduation, their plans were set into action. A Facebook page was created in mid-February and it quickly amassed followers—2,100 friends by the end of the month, with 1,400 of them coming in the first 48 hours it was live, according to the page.
The group also teamed with the Henderson Kentucky Education Foundation, a certified nonprofit organization. So not only did the group amass fans, but working with HKEF, it was also able to amass cash from donating companies and organizations.
Patty Sellers, the director of development for HKEF, said Friday she was happy to see the teacher store finally come to be.
“It feels great because our mission is to maximize community involvement so that we can provide high-quality education opportunities,” she said.
Harrington, who is a chef at Hometown Roots, was at the grand opening to serve complimentary sandwiches and sides from the restaurant as well as talk to some of the teachers. Several, she said, were “thankful and appreciative” for the store.
Comer, also present at the opening, said we’re “just happy to do something that helps teachers and students.”
As the HLI group was getting prepped to open, some members drove to a teacher store in Nashville and also visited the Evansville Teacher Locker across the river, said Adam Blythe, another member of the HLI team. They asked the Evansville teacher store reps what the top 40 selling items were at their store, and this allowed the team to put together a starting list of supplies to offer, Blythe said, adding that more or different supplies will be added as the store receives requests.
With the opening, the local teacher store will be run by HKEF. Sellers said the store will be open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. a couple days each week leading up to the start of school. Once school starts, she foresees that the store will be open 4-7 p.m. a couple days each week. More definitive information will be provided via e-mails, school websites and Facebook pages, hendersonkyedfoundation.com, and Facebook pages for the Henderson Kentucky Education Foundation and The Teacher Store Henderson.
