This is the last week of a new local effort to support classroom needs in School District 742. The Local Education and Activities Foundation, or LEAF, is connecting individuals, groups or businesses with classrooms that have specific supply needs with the Adopt-A-Classroom program.

LEAF’s executive director Bruce Hentges says they formatted the program after one based in California, and their research found that teachers are spending a lot of their own money to support classroom teaching supplies. Hentges says their needs assessment indicated some teachers spend between hundreds of dollars up to $2,700 a year to support their classrooms.

Teachers have given LEAF a list of supplies the funds will support, ranging from science kits to sheet music to dry ice and field mice to feed reptiles. Donors are given an adoption certificate for the class they support.

The Adopt-A-Classroom program is underway through the end of this month, and donations of $250 per classroom are processed by LEAF.

An interview with Bruce Hengtes is posted here.