Hub collects supplies for school kids
Parents: PR move is a budget ‘failure’
Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s office will be holding a weeklong school supply drive next week aimed at collecting essential items for needy Hub public schools students that parents groups say should’ve been provided through a fully funded budget.
In an email to city employees, Walsh’s chief of staff, Daniel Koh, announced City Hall will be collecting basic school supplies such as backpacks, pens, pencils, erasers and notebooks that “Boston kids in grades K1 to 8 need to be successful during their upcoming school year.”
Drop-off boxes for the drive, which runs through Aug. 18, will be set up at City Hall in the first- and third-floor lobbies and near the Court Street entrance.
“The Mayor’s Office frequently sponsors service and giving initiatives, like sneaker and food drives, to help those in need,” Walsh’s press secretary Nicole Caravella said in a statement. “With the start of school coming up, we have decided to collect backpacks and school supplies for students that don’t have access to these resources at home. We look forward to making a difference and helping all of Boston’s kids have a fun and successful school year.”
And though the mayor’s office is stressing the drive is to benefit the district’s underprivileged students and isn’t meant to stock classrooms, some parent activists are calling the fundraiser a reflection of Walsh’s “failure” to fully fund the Boston Public Schools budget.
“The mayor’s school supplies drive list includes even the most basic classroom items, like pencils, erasers, notebooks and folders — these are not humanitarian items like uniforms or coats meant to alleviate student poverty issues,” said Kristin Johnson, a Mendell Elementary School parent.
“This email from Dan Koh is an admission of guilt on behalf of the mayor for his failure to adequately resource our schools with even the most fundamental tools for learning.”
Tonya Tedesco, a Boston Arts Academy parent, agreed, saying the drive is the mayor’s attempt “to deflect the real impact his last three budgets have had on the district with a nice PR move.”