Putnam Schools Coalition Wants Aligned Supply Lists Districtwide

The Putnam County Schools District Guiding Coalition wants to implement districtwide school supplies lists by grade level.

Curriculum Supervisor Bubba Winningham said the plan would create equity within the district. He said it will make shopping easier for parents, and remove some of the variance in what parents are asked to buy.

“It wasn’t necessarily huge, big discrepancy across the board, but it was enough for us to say, okay, as a parent, we just want to make sure we’re not asking too much from one side of the county to the other,” Winningham said.

Winningham said for elementary schools, there will be a uniform K-1 list and a 2-4 list based on the different needs of those grade levels. In middle school, there would be a list for fifth and sixth grade, and a separate list for seventh and eighth graders. Winningham said the coalition will bring the proposal to the school board and implement it at the start of next year if approved.

“Equity is important, and it takes support from the entire community to accomplish this because it is not easily achieved,” Winningham said. “One of the main reasons we want to ensure equity across the board is we want to ensure that all students, regardless of their personal or social circumstances achieve their academic potential.”

He said he wants to ensure that families from each community across the county have the same expectations placed on them. He said the lists will closely resemble lists from years past, with basic supplies like paper, pencils, and folders headlining the items requested.

“Our principals took it to our teachers, some of our lead teachers within the schools and they’ve been great about it,” Winningham said. “We’ve asked them for their feedback on this and what they saw or what they wanted to eliminate or add based on the lists, and so they’ve been great.”

Winningham said if approved by the school board, stores will begin posting the lists and advertising the supplies listed. He said the uniformity throughout the system should be a positive for everyone involved.