LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The new superintendent of the Clark County School District recently told FOX5 why the district’s budget was off by around $10 million last year, and that the problem has been fixed.
But FOX5 has been noticing several posts from CCSD teachers asking for community donations for school supplies citing budget cuts.
The district says it has not cut school budgets. But the answer to stocking up might not just be with crowdsourcing online. It could come a bit closer to home.
Take it from Kirsten Searer, the President of the Public Education Foundation in charge of the Teacher Superstore. “This is the only resource center of its type in Nevada,” Searer said.
The mission of the Public Education Foundation is to partner with the community and CCSD to meet immediate, critical education needs.
Searer knows what teachers need and what they tend to be lacking amid the district’s budget issues in the news.
“Of course, everybody’s concerned about budget cuts right now,” Searer said. “It’s unfortunately something that always happens. Surveys tell us that more than 90% of teachers buy supplies for their own classroom, and we think that’s wrong.”
FOX5 noticed several teachers in the district asking for school supplies on Donors Choose, writing things like, “Budget cuts have hit our school hard.”
“Budget cuts have resulted in fewer resources for interactive projects.” another
“Due to significant budget cuts for the 2025–2026 school year, we have no funds available to purchase games for this event.”
But FOX5 received this statement from the district, writing, “The Clark County School District has not cut school budgets. Principals use school budget estimates in collaboration with their school organizational team to develop the school budget for the upcoming school year.”
Searer says there’s another reason teacher’s might notice dwindling dollars.
“We’re also seeing the drawdown of COVID relief funds and so school budgets that for a long time had money for supplies. Now suddenly we’re looking next year, they may not,” Searer said.
And that’s where the Public Education Foundation comes in. For a $26 membership, teachers can get $500 worth of supplies.
“So every year we survey teachers in the Clark County School District to talk about school supplies,” Searer said. “They tell us about 60% of our students arrive on the first day of school without any of the school supplies that we asked them to going in, and so who fills in that gap? Of course it’s our teachers because they care about their kids!“
Searer says they haven’t seen a spike in teachers coming to the superstore yet, but she expects a rush of teachers to head her way next school year mainly for the drying down of COVID-19 funds.
The district tells FOX5 it supports Senator Marilyn Dondero-Loop’s bill, SB 90 which allocates $15 million in grants to organizations to give certain supplies and materials to teachers.
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