OUT-OF-POCKET BLUES; L.A. TEACHERS FORK OUT THOUSANDS TO BUY SUPPLIES.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Staff Writer

Kymberly Tillman's shopping cart holds a classroom: a globe, a scale, science kits, workbooks, rhythm instruments and paper clocks for learning how to tell time.

The final tab: $247.98 - a bill the teacher at Garden Grove Elementary in Reseda paid herself.

And her purchase was hardly extraordinary. In fact, it's probably just the beginning for this year.

Tillman estimates she spent $1,500 of her own money on supplies last year.

``We hardly have any extra supplies,'' the special education teacher said. ``The schools just don't have enough. . . . We have to buy additional stuff.''

Tillman isn't alone. Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District say money for supplies is so tight that they spend much of their own - more than $1,000 a year in many cases - to keep their students in glitter, glue and even such basics as classroom library books.

``Teachers have always shelled out a lot of their own money. It's well over $500 on average,'' said Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents 41,000 teachers, health and human service professionals.

The problem is not limited to Los Angeles. In San Francisco recently, teachers held a street demonstration to beg for funds for supplies.

``It's the best-kept secret - how teachers subsidize education,'' said Nanet Caruthers, a kindergarten teacher at Magnolia Avenue Elementary near downtown Los Angeles. She spends between $3,000 and $5,000 each year on school supplies.

Although the district provides teachers with basic supplies such as paper, pencils and textbooks for the year, they are forced to supplement their meager rations.

Hector Colon, a science teacher at Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, spends up to $1,500 a year on computer equipment, software programs, distilled water and food coloring for experiments, as well as frogs, fetal pigs and cow eyeballs for dissection.

``Even though we're allocated the most money for the school it's still not enough for individual science teachers,'' said Colon, one of 20 science instructors who share an annual budget of $3,200.

Of that budget, Colon receives about $120 to spend on supplies for his three classes.

``That's nothing. Just getting a couple cases of paper, there goes three-quarters of what I'm allocated,'' said Colon who spends his allotted funds on copying paper and other ``simple things that I use on a daily basis.''

Higuchi said the district's system of purchasing and delivering supplies needs to be streamlined. He said neither materials nor funds that can be used to purchase instructional materials are allocated to schools in a timely fashion.

``A lot of it has to do with the slowness with which it takes to get whatever money is budgeted,'' Higuchi said.

He urged the district to reform its method of delivering supplies to schools.

``The way they do business has to be blown away,'' Higuchi said. ``The supplies are there, but it's not getting to the teachers.''

School board member Julie Korenstein, a former teacher, said she is willing to work with UTLA to improve the situation.

``Whatever it takes to get schools and teachers the necessary supplies, we need to do everything to assist them,'' Korenstein said.

District inefficient

Educators said they buy their own supplies for many reasons. Sometimes schools just don't stock certain items, such as modeling clay for an art project or film to document a science experiment. At other times, it takes too long to order materials through the district, so they buy their own.

``You need orange glitter for next week, but they don't have orange glitter and they won't have it for some time,'' said Harvey Abram, a third-grade teacher at Van Gogh Street Elementary in Granada Hills. ``Sometimes it's cheaper to buy it yourself.''

Most times, though, teachers said they buy their own supplies to supplement their lessons, motivate students and liven up drab classroom walls.

``I like to inspire my students, and to inspire them you have to provide them with purchases that the school district doesn't supply you with,'' said Rhonda Dillon, a fifth-grade teacher at Strathern Elementary in North Hollywood.

Dillon said she spends about $1,000 a year on art supplies, film, stationary, stickers and other rewards for good students.

Caruthers, the Magnolia Avenue Elementary kindergarten teacher, said buying her own supplies makes teaching easier.

``I don't resent it,'' she said. ``These children come from such needy families. There is no stimulation in the home, except for the TV. Not even any books and very few toys. School is such a joy for them and they look forward to it every day. When I see how happy they are, it makes me feel good.''

$24 per student

Principals said they try to ensure that teachers have the basic tools to conduct lessons but money is tight.

``I don't buy everything they need because I just can't,'' said Maureen Diekmann, principal of Van Gogh Elementary, which receives $24 per child for instructional items such as crayons, pencils and glue.

At Van Gogh, like many schools, parents help fill in the funding gap. Each year parents collect wish lists from teachers who request everything from board games to overhead projectors, classroom library books and CD players. The Parent Teacher Association also gives $100 to each teacher to offset classroom purchases.

``It's a gesture of the PTA to show the teachers we are concerned and would like to help even if it's in a small way,'' said Kay Rosen, president of the PTA, which is buying $3,000 worth of classroom dictionaries for teachers this year.

At other schools, teachers are reimbursed for a fraction of their expenses or not at all.

Tillman, the special education teacher at Garden Grove Elementary, said she will seek reimbursement for the globe and science scale she recently purchased. In the meantime, she expects to turn her pockets inside out for classroom supplies.

``In 10 years, I'll have my ideal classroom,'' Tillman said. ``I'll just be $10,000 in debt.''

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Photo

Photo: Garden Grove Elementary School teacher Kymberly Tillman buys games and supplies for her students using her own money.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer