By Pooling Resources, Castro Elementary Helps Parents Save Money

Since the start of the recession in 2008, school has taken a different approach to the back-to-school process.

Teachers have stopped giving parents a supply list. Instead, the school accepts donations of $40-$45 per child from the parents, and the school orders the supplies in bulk. This, according to Principal Judy Crates, helps parents save money, time and gas, and ensures that students actually get the things they need.

"Parents try to shop for sales but spend hours and gas going back and forth between stores. It all adds up," said Crates while at Castro Elementary's third-annual Back to School event on Friday. She added that parents don't always get what the teachers ask for. But this way, "We are able to buy wholesale, high quality items at a school discount."

If parents can't afford to donate, Crates explained that it doesn't matter, because other parents sometimes contribute more. However, many parents do. When the supplies arrive, the school distributes them to the students.

"I think it's good at $45, because when one goes to the store to buy, you end up spending more," Rafaela Orozco, the mother of fifth-grader Andrea, said in Spanish. Orozco, a cafeteria worker, has four more children, who went to Castro, and Los Altos High School, so she's familiar with back-to-school shopping.

Orozco remembers spending $80 per child or more.

"I don't make enough to spend this much," she said. "That's why this helps."

The "Great Recession," which began in December 2007 and lasted until June 2009—nine months longer than the recessions of 2001 and 1990 —has been characterized by high unemployment rates, a credit squeeze and a flat wage growth.

However, while inflation has not been an issue, despite the Federal Reserve's low interest rates, the price of goods, according to the July 2011 Consumer Price Index Report, rose 3.6 percent year-to-year.

The increase in prices and the budget cuts to the schools may be a reason why the contribution for the school supplies rose from $20-$25 in 2010 for those in kindergarten through fourth grades to $40 in 2011 and from $25 to $45 for fifth-graders.

"It helps us out a lot economically," Fanny Vasquez, the mother of a kindergartner, said in Spanish. She donated the $40. "I think it does help, because with how the economy is, it would be more difficult. This opportunity helps out a lot."

Ramiro Lugo and his wife, Matilde Lopez, have a 6-year-old son starting first grade at Castro. Lugo said that when he received a letter from the school about how the state budget will affect the school budget, despite his financial hardships, he felt the call to help out.

Lugo said he didn't see his $40 contribution for school supplies as a saving, but as a benefit for the school.

"We don't worry if we will benefit, because we know it's for the school," he said. "The crisis has hit everyone."