For a fourth year, the City of Greensboro is offering an alternative way for residents to pay their parking tickets — by donating new and unwrapped school supplies to support local teachers.
The donations go toward the Guilford Education Alliance Teacher Supply Warehouse. It's basically a store filled with notebooks, pencils, and other classroom items where Guilford County Schools teachers can shop up to four times a year for free.
Louise Courts, the development director for the Guilford Education Alliance, said the warehouse provided about half a million dollars worth of supplies to teachers last year.
"And you know, the research says that teachers spent $450 a year on school supplies," Courts said. "But if you ask them, they'll all say, 'Oh, no, I spend way more than that.' Every year. Even teachers who've been teaching for a long time.”
The warehouse helps educators, but it also ensures that students in Guilford County will have what they need to be successful in class. Courts said that’s important, especially because the student poverty rate in the district is more than 66%.
“So there are a lot of families who would love to be able to buy everything on that school supply list that the teacher sends home but they just may not be able to," Courts said. "So it's a real privilege, and it's an easy thing for the community to do.”
The City of Greensboro will accept school supplies or cash donations to the warehouse as payment for parking tickets issued now through Oct. 2.
Donations must be made within 30 days of the infraction.
Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.