My school did one for the first time this year using EPI, and they were very happy. We had about 25% of the students participate, and participation was highest in the kindergarten and first grade classes. The PTA did tack on something like $5 to each kit in order to make some money on it, so it was more expensive than running over to WalMart or someplace like that to buy your stuff--you were definitely paying for convenience. But the quality of the items was very good--we told them what brands we wanted, and those were the brands we got.
The only complaint I heard was that the lists were done so far in advance that the teachers then changed their mind on some stuff, so some grade packs were missing a few things or had the wrong thing, and then the parents still had to go out and do some shopping. But that wasn't EPI's fault.
Yes i like the products--they are just like the ones you would buy at walmart--crayola, scotties tissues, elmers etc. I have had to replace my sons crayons because he uses them alot and a few were getting kinda small--but i have never not had to replace something thruout the school year. I have not heard any bad complaints from anyone who purchased these kits at our school-
Our private school does this and now it is required because it was getting to be too big of a hassle for 374 people to participate instead of 385 (the whole school). They do make some money off of it. I, too, have noticed the notebooks my daughter has, though, are falling apart and need to be replaced.
Our school uses School Tool Box. The parent assoc. does not run this. The school does and they don't make any money off of it. A lot of parents do like this service. The box is on their child's desk the first day of school. Many parents do not like it. The items are cheaply made and there is not enough supplies to last the school year. They are also expensive.
We done our first school supply program last year. We got a list of supplies each child would need from each teacher and we used the School Kidz company. Their prices for the items we needed were
Kindergarten costs--$33.00
1st grade-$16.00
2nd grade-$23.00
3rd grade-$23.00
4th grade-$36.00
We sent home flyers to the parents with the order forms in May and they were able to pick up their school kits at open house in August.Many parents loved this idea because they didn't have to fight or find things at the stores. We sold about $2220.00 worth of kits.( We are a school of about 400 students) The PTO ordered extra kits which we paid to have to sell to new students thruout the year. We will be doing this again this year.
