Office of State Human Resources Director Barbara Gibson will participate in a listening session at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Tramway Elementary School in Sanford with Principal Andrea Sloan and members of her team in support of Governor Roy Cooper’s second annual School Supply Drive.
Gibson will announce a substantial donation to the local drive from a Raleigh business owner who challenges colleagues and community members to donate supplies to ensure that Lee County teachers and students have the basic resources they need for classroom success.
“The U.S. Department of Education found that teachers typically spend up to $500 each year for classroom supplies,” Gibson said. “It’s great that they all do this – it’s impressive – but it doesn’t seem right, especially when we all know that teachers are underpaid for their hard work.”
For the second year in a row, Governor Cooper put a $150 stipend into his budget to help public school teachers cover such expenditures. The General Assembly again removed the allocation from its final budget.
State Employee Credit Union branches across the state are serving as local drop-off collection sites for School Supply Drive donations. Jennifer Butler, manager of the Sanford branch, will attend the listening session.
Other partners include Communities in Schools of North Carolina, the North Carolina Business Committee for Education, and VolunteerNC.
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Note: Media interested in covering the listening session should contact Jill Warren Lucas at 919-807-4807 or jill.lucas@nc.gov., as well as notify Tramway Elementary Principal Sloan by calling 919-718-0170.