TEACHERS SPEND BIG TO PROVIDE FOR CLASS.

Byline: Krystn Shrieve Staff Writer

Looking around her classroom at Simi Valley's Crestview Elementary School, second-grade teacher Mary Amstutz can see the new curtains, cheery blue posters, homemade bulletin boards, colored pencils and notebooks - all paid for out of her own pocket.

Amstutz estimates she spends a couple of hundred dollars every year sprucing up her classroom and buying educational supplies to supplement her teaching plan.

``If I want to do it right, I have to go the extra mile,'' said Amstutz, who has been teaching for nine years. ``If I didn't spend my own money, there would be a lot fewer incentives for the kids, and my classroom wouldn't be as stimulating.''

And Amstutz is not alone. From classroom decorations to books for the library, arts and crafts supplies to stickers for outstanding work, teachers throughout Ventura County are spending hundreds - and sometimes thousands - of dollars every year to make learning more meaningful for their students.

Rae Lynn Guevara, who teaches kindergarten at Glenwood Elementary School in Thousand Oaks, remembers spending $6,500 her first year as a teacher.

``When I first started teaching, I was at a one-school district, so that meant I was the only kindergarten teacher in the district,'' Guevara said. ``My first summer, I spent a lot of money traveling and attending workshops.

``Aside from the workshops, I never wrote a big check,'' she said. ``Usually it was $7 here, $30 there. But at the end of the year, it's a shock.''

Now, after seven years in the business, Guevara said she spends about $2,000 a year.

She buys literary favorites such as ``Miss Bindergarten Goes to Kindergarten'' and compact discs with songs like ``Macarena'' - which come in handy when students learn about the letter M. Her shopping list also includes storage bins, apples for making apple sauce, and white icing and food coloring to teach youngsters how to mix colors.

Stretching dollars

Janice DiFatta, president of the Simi Valley Unified School District board, said most of the taxpayer money districts received are spent on textbooks, curricular programs, school safety, building maintenance, staff salaries and updating technology. That leaves grants, scholarships and parent-teacher associations and booster groups as the source for funding special needs that teachers may have in their classrooms.

``Teachers aren't required to spend their own money, of course,'' DiFatta said. ``But often, if they feel it will enhance what they're offering, they will.''

Pam Chasse, principal at Glenwood Elementary School in Thousand Oaks, said teachers at her school get an allowance of $10 per student to last through the school year. And while she's impressed with how far the teachers can stretch that money, she knows that most of them will wind up spending some of their own.

``All my teachers are constantly going to education stores to buy things to enrich a lesson,'' Chasse said. ``They'll buy folders, binders, boxes, and all of that adds up.''

Chasse said it's not uncommon for teachers to buy a little something for their classes almost every day.

``Maybe they need to buy treats for a reading incentive, or maybe this year they didn't get a room mother and have to pay for a party, or maybe they have to buy ingredients for a cooking project or a science project,'' Chasse said. ``Teachers are just generous people, and they want everything to be just right.''

Creative supplements

Yolande Gasbeck, a second-grade teacher at Walnut Creek Elementary School in Moorpark, said one of her biggest expenses is books for the classroom library.

``We purchase a lot of books to supplement the reading material so they have a wide variety,'' Gasbeck said. ``In our classroom, we could have some students reading at a first-grade level and others reading at a fourth-grade level, so we have to do whatever we can to encourage them and help them enjoy reading.''

Gasbeck, who spends more than $1,000 of her own money each year, considers herself an avid bargain hunter. She's always quick to ask for a teacher discount and even makes things for her classroom with materials she finds around her house. She made a pointer using a stuffed garden glove and built an easel out of plastic pipes.

``If you're around teachers long enough, you'll see that they're always trying to get what they can for free or at a discount,'' Gasbeck said. ``We buy things that are going out of stock, go to garage sales or get grocery stores to give us their old strawberry baskets or egg cartons for art projects.''

Gasbeck said her biggest supporters have been parents who are willing to donate paper, markers, crayons and even film for Polaroid cameras.

Simi Valley resident Holly Hagins, who has had four children attend Santa Susana School across the street from where she lives, has always tried to help teachers.

``The teachers send home wish lists, and they always need pencils and pens, crayons and glue,'' Hagins said. ``I'm always running across the street to help out. Community involvement and family involvement is essential. Anytime those teachers need me, they just have to pick up the phone and call.''

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Photo: (color) Teacher Rae Lynn Guevara uses classroom materials she bought herself.

Lilly Barrett/Special to the Daily News