Community dollars materially improve learning, PUSD Teacher’s Supply Closet shows

By Alan Hunt
Originally Published: July 22, 2026
The Daily Courier

“Can I borrow a pencil?”

Such is a common request that feels essential and harmless as a student. Less obvious is the pressure teachers feel to maintain a full stock of supplies throughout the entire school year.

“It was like fighting with a kid over a pencil, where you’d put your name on it and this little flag, you know, [or] you give me your shoe, and I’ll give you a pencil,” Dr. Nicole McEwen, algebra teacher at Prescott High School, said.

Before coming to PUSD last year, the educator worked at a charter school part of a much larger district in California. She recalled being provided with a limited number of supplies during back-to-school season and having to restock them using her own funds later on.

Buying supplies is an implied expectation for K-12 educators in the United States. Hannah Bombardieri, an English and social studies teacher at Heritage Middle, recalled a similar experience of having a one-time, “little” stipend every year to cover costs at her previous district.

“It was like every week or every other week I was having to buy something for my students or something for projects, something for the classroom,” she said. “At the time I was a single mom of five, so that was a lot. But, you know, it felt necessary.”

Supplies are an essential part of any learning environment, but in a state like Arizona with notoriously low funding for schools, and teacher salaries by extension, the burden to stock them increases substantially. In 2019, the PUSD Education Foundation launched its Teacher’s Supply Closet program to meet that need.

The foundation uses its donation funds to provide teachers with a steady stream of supplies like laminated sheets, pens and notebooks throughout the year. Much of its stock is physical item donations from local businesses and community members.

Teachers are encouraged to take whatever they need from the space, which began in a literal closet in the district office. Today, it is housed in a spacious renovated trailer at Prescott High. A yearly tradition during the district’s new teacher orientation is bringing participants into the space for their first “shopping” experience.

The space was modeled after a Staples store, foundation director Paul Kirchgraber said. It features rows of well-stocked shelves with reusable shopping bags hanging near the entrance for convenience. Another room is full of bins with donated supplies ready to be put on display.

“I don’t feel like I have to hoard supplies in my classroom because I know I can always come here and get them,” McEwen said. “It’s made a big difference for me. It’s made teaching so much easier.”

By the foundation’s estimation, the average teacher spends $600 per year on supplies in Arizona. That’s a significant expense for a PUSD educator considering the district reported an average teacher salary of $64,620 for the upcoming school year. Contextualize this figure within Yavapai County’s ballooning housing market: Yavapai College researchers estimated that an annual salary of $133,521 was needed to purchase a $545,000 value home, the median home price in the county in February 2025.

In practice, the program goes beyond just saving teachers money by directly improving student learning experiences. Both McEwen and Bombardieri recalled the joy of pulling items for students during visits to the closet.

“Not everybody has the money to have this super fancy little pencil pouch,” Bombardieri said. “I had a student who got one [from me] at the beginning of the year, he was able to keep all his stuff in there instead of just rolling on his desk, and he just like held it a couple times, he’s like, ‘thank you, thank you.'”

McEwen pointed out that even inexpensive items can make a huge difference.

“I had a student that was using a two-pocket folder, and I used to joke because he would open that thing, and it would go all over the floor every time,” she said. “So I was able to get him dividers. And, you know, we hole-punched him and got him organized. It felt so good to be able to help the kids out.”

Sonya Tenney also sources items from the closet, although the supplies on her list look a bit different as a preschool teacher at Discovery Gardens. The first to come to mind?

“Shaving cream,” she said. “You can either just squirt the shaving cream on the table and they paint with it and we draw letters and things like that. Or you can add it to paint and it makes puffy paint.”

PUSD governing board president Jane Robertson oversees closet operations, ensuring items are continually stocked and available. If she doesn’t have a certain item on hand, she places orders by teacher request. The former Abia Judd Elementary teacher originally pitched the program and has overseen its growth into an essential service for PUSD educators.

Last year, the closet saw a record setting 645 visits, Kirchgraber said.

“As more PUSD teachers discover they no longer have to spend their own money on basic classroom supplies, visits to the closet have increased,” Paul Kirchgraber, executive director of the education foundation, said. “That’s exactly what we want.”

The public school ethos is to provide equitable and tuition-free education for all, but Arizona’s legislature has built a reputation for failing to fund schools competitively, leaving growing gaps in per-pupil funding, maintenance support and teacher pay, as previously reported by the Courier.

In turn, the Teacher’s Supply Closet program is a testament to the possibilities that community aid can bring to the next generation of Prescottonians and the educators guiding them.

“We don’t get any city grants, state grants, federal grants,” Kirchgraber said. “This all comes from our community and our people that want to support teachers.”

By Alan Hunt – The Daily Courier
Originally Published: July 22, 2026