Say you’re a teacher in Monongalia County Schools.
What’s the difference between that laptop computer – or a pack of construction paper – you might need for your classroom?
Well, it depends on who you ask.
And, how you ask for it.
Emily Calandrelli, the aerospace engineer-turned Emmy winning TV host for a kids’ science show, found that out recently when she put out a Facebook call to teachers in her native Monongalia County.
Send me your “wish” lists, she said – those extras such as tissues, markers and hand sanitizer that parents are asked to contribute to, if they can – and we’ll sort through them and see what we can do.
People can send you the items directly, she reasoned.
“The idea was to try and help hard-working teachers back home,” said Calandrelli, who is getting ready to go to outer space in coming months on a civilian space flight.
Instead, she unintentionally launched a line-item quandary for the local district.
Crowdfunding — which is what Calandrelli was proposing.
The district discourages such solicitation for money and materials, Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. said, because of the third-party vendors often involved.
And that’s because teachers in the district already receive additional money for the purpose of the above. It comes out to $300 from the district’s budget, plus another $150 in faculty senate funds, he said.
Everything else is there as needed in the district warehouse, he and other district officials said during Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting.
Both Campbell and board president Mike Kelly said it came down to oversight and accountability on the district.
Especially in the matter of computers, they stressed, where licensing and maintenance gets tricky.
“If you get a laptop that way,” Kelly said, “who owns it?”
Besides, they said, Mon’s excess levy for education, which again comes up for renewal in 2026, already contributes some $30 million – or 22% of the district’s operating budget – to school coffers. Said levy traditionally sails through on the ballot.
“Our community is very generous,” Campbell said.
“We already have to do enough fundraising for band trips and other things,” he said.
“We don’t want start nickel-and-diming our parents when they already support the levy like they do.”
Chrissi Dennis knows she sometimes has to dip into her pocket to purchase items for her classroom at Brookhaven Elementary School, where she teaches pre-kindergarten.
Parents help, like they always do, the teacher said, echoing Campbell. And the dynamic, she said, carries dividends.
“When families are vested in their child’s classroom, they’re also vested in their child’s school.”
