$64.34

That is what DCPS owes me for the first thing of the new year that I purchased for my classroom needs. That is also the amount that I will never get reimbursed from DCPS.

I had to make photocopies for my new semester classes: syllabi, major project assignments, a couple articles that will supplement the textbook (something that they want us to do!!), a graphic organizer to make learning Cornell Notes easier for my students, and a weekly homework/warm-up/exit slip/behavior tracker. I seriously considered what was genuinely NEEDED to make copies of and came to the decision that all of it was necessary because these classes are new and need to understand the structure of my classes. What did I ACTUALLY make copies of before I felt like my pocketbook would be too strained? The syllabi, the tracker, and the articles. Not the major project assignments or the graphic organizer (though, I will have to copy the projects later). 603 copies for 74 students. And I didn't even finish! You might wonder why I had to spent money to do this. I'll tell you: I only get about 1000 copies a MONTH at school. Last month (January), I only got 500 copies. I've already used about 400 of my February copies because, didn't I mention I HAVE NEW CLASSES?!!! My school puts a cap on the copies because the copiers, if overused, break down too much, the school doesn't have money in the budget to repair them, nor does it have money to purchase toner for the 2 copiers available for teacher use (so we only get 1 and when that breaks, we're screwed), because people have abused the previous "unlimited copies" norm, and "because we should be environmentally conscious." I will admit, I've gotten very good about finding copy-less ways to hold lessons, but still....ESPECIALLY at the beginning of new classes, why can't we have both copiers running or 2000 copies for the month, or a Kinkos card or SOMETHING? I got scolded last week for not making my copies before the day-of and that I should be planning ahead in case of emergencies. So tonight, I went and made copies so that I would have them all ready to go.

And DCPS still owes me $64.34. I'm keeping a tab.