School Wish List Granted

Pictured in red with teachers from the Emerson School are Jason Church, Dora Hermann and Jay Schmidke from Courtesy Automotive Group.

Photo credit: David Weissman

Sixteen homeroom teachers at Emerson Elementary School in Phoenix recently received a back-to-school surprise they had no idea was coming. Their principal, Nick Lodato, was approached by Courtesy Automotive Group, which wanted to provide the top 5 school supplies needed by every child at the school.

Principal Lodato came up with a wish list of the most coveted supplies that the district does not provide, and teachers would otherwise need to buy for their classes themselves. The wish list included double-sided dry erase boards, dry erase markers, Crayola markers, composition notebooks and pencil boxes.

Last week, that wish list was fulfilled. When the teachers at Emerson School were called to the media center by Principal Lodato, they were greeted by him and Superintendent Ibi Dávila Haghighat. The teachers were then directed to tables, where every supply requested was allocated to them by class size.

The teachers were thrilled, having received the items in time to welcome the 330 students in grades K-8 for their first day of school this week.