bureaucracy

So back in public school, the gatekeeper for ordering supplies was the office manager, the secretaries, the supply person, the program director, and the principal. It was nearly impossible to order anything. Scratch that -- It was impossible to order anything. There was no opportunity whatsoever to say, Hey, I need this for my classroom, is there any way to get it?"

Since Charter Schools have control of their own budget, things should be different, and for the most part they are, but I'm finding that our office manager has become a sort of gatekeeper for which supplies get bought and which do not. I completely understand the need to be economical and save money, but when it comes down to ordering the cheap pencils that break and the more expensive pencils that can be used for longer, it seems like the choice should be easy. At least to me, who actually has to deal with the fallback from having cheap pencils break every ten minutes and students sharpening endlessly. I tried to explain this to our office manager but got nowhere as she continued to insist that we are really tight on money right now.

But buying cheap pencils is like throwing away your money, I tried to explain, because most of the pencil gets sharpened away! Why not buy the pencils that can be used for longer? Office manager who uses pens and white-out claimed that the pencils work the same.

More frustration because the price difference is about TEN CENTS per hundred. Good pencils are definitely worth that extra.

UGH