Ordering and Purchasing Supplies, Materials, and Equipment

We value high quality, natural, open-ended materials and minimize the presence of plastic and materials with a defined use or stereotypical image. Fort Hill staff maintain a high level of environmental and fiscal responsibility and collaboration in planning and ordering new materials and supplies.

To avoid unnecessary duplication of ordering, maintain consistency in the quality and type of materials offered at Fort Hill, and to maintain an inventory that reflects a wide range of developmental domains and needs, all orders, and any materials brought into the school for classroom use, are approved by and processed through the level coordinator and assistant director. The office coordinator submits orders for basic consumable items found in the laundry room and closet in the office.

The sections below describe the ordering process. Please read the entire section before submitting an order. Please click here to submit an order. The form is also available below in the Submit an Order section. 

Budget Management

The director determines, manages, and oversees the budget. The assistant director and level and office coordinators manage, monitor and approve purchases.

Supervising teachers manage their Classroom Budgets. Please see below for details on budget categories. Please monitor the expenses charged to your classroom to ensure you do not exceed the annual allocation. Your expenses include orders submitted in the Summer Bulk Order and orders submitted through the Qualtrics Order Form. Personal reimbursements for purchases are strongly discouraged and will be only granted with prior approval for the purchase by the level coordinator or assistant director.

The budget for snack is a separate budget and is maintained by the assistant director. Supervising teachers may request specific foods for cooking projects.

Budget Categories for Purchases

Expenses for supplies and materials are charged to one of four categories: Basics, Classrooms, Level, and All-School. The procedures for requesting, ordering, and inventorying the materials vary with each category and are detailed in subsequent sections. Please see the following section for a detailed description of these categories.

Basics Budget

• Items stored in the office, teachers room, laundry room, or kitchen or  related to food service or napping are funded through the Basics Budget
• Teachers take only what the classroom needs for a short period of time, and leave a written note for the office coordinator when the supply is getting low.
• All staff communicate to the office coordinator when a supply considered basic is running low.
• Items that qualify to be charged to the Basic Budget are ordered by the office coordinator, the level coordinator or the assistant director.

Classroom Budget

• Each supervising teacher maintains an annual classroom budget to purchase materials for her classroom. Classroom materials include consumable supplies such as clay, special markers, pom poms, beads, etc., as well as instructional supplies that will remain in the classroom, rather than being housed in the shared closets. These items may include permanent materials such as books and paint brushes, accessories for cameras or computers, or may be related to curriculum projects. Expenses for items for the ministudio may be shared between the East and South Rooms. Items purchased with the classroom budget may travel with the supervising teacher to new classrooms, if her room assignment changes in subsequent years.
• A supervising teacher communicates to the level coordinator (preschool/art studio) or assistant director (infant/toddler/music studio) the details of an item she’d like to order.
• The level coordinator/assistant director determines whether to approve the request for ordering.
• If approved, the supervising teacher submits the order on the Classroom Budget page of the Order form.
• When the material arrives, the supervising teacher enters the item into the classroom online inventory sheet.
• Supervising teachers are responsible for monitoring the expenditures in their budgets to ensure that there is sufficient funding to cover all costs associated with a purchase (e.g., shipping costs). 

Level Budget

• Shared curriculum items such as puzzles, games, science materials, music, etc. These items are housed in closets throughout the building; the materials are shared across levels.
• Each level maintains a budget for shared curriculum items such as puzzles, games, science materials, music, etc. These items are housed in closets throughout the building; the materials are shared across levels. The materials are inventoried annually and the program and level coordinators maintain a system for managing the sharing of resources.
• A supervising teacher communicates to the level coordinator (preschool/art studio) or assistant director (infant/toddler/music studio) the details of an item she’d like to order.
• The level coordinator/assistant director determines whether to bring the item to a level or supervising teachers meeting for feedback from the group.
• If approved, the supervising teacher submits the order on the appropriate section of the form.The level coordinator or assistant director enters the item into the online inventory system.

All-School Budget

Items charged to the All School Budget include equipment and books. 

Equipment Budget

Equipment includes furniture, structures, playground equipment, cameras, strollers, etc.; items are typically more expensive and durable than Classroom or Level materials. Supervising teachers may request equipment to supplement the program or to replace broken items; the level coordinator and assistant director maintain Google Docs with “wish lists” for equipment, as well as lists itemizing equipment to plan for replacement. Please talk to the level coordinator to add to these lists. All equipment purchases must be approved by the level coordinator and the assistant director and the proposal shared at a supervising teacher meeting. Equipment that costs more than $250 must be approved by the director prior to purchase.

Cameras, iPods, and iTunes 

Cameras, iPods, and wireless speakers are budgeted as all-school equipment. Each classroom has one camera and one iPod. The cameras and iPods are assigned to a supervising teacher for inventory purposes. The assistant director selects and purchases cameras, replacing them when they break and the warranty is expired. All classrooms receive the same brand and model camera. Teachers purchase camera accessories, such as memory cards, with the funds in their classroom budgets.

The music supervising teacher maintains an iTunes library on the studio computer and the Shared Smith Network Drive. The music studio supervising teacher syncs all iPods to the library on a regular basis. Teachers may request music from the music studio supervising teacher. Music for iTunes is charged to the budget of the level that requests the music.

Computers

The College distributes computers to supervising teachers and replaces them on a predetermined schedule.  Teachers purchase accessories for the computers, such as thumb drives, with funds in the classroom budget.

Supervising teachers perform the following regular maintenance to the computers on which they are registered as the administrator :

• Empty Trash, Downloads, Desktops
• Run updates
• Install necessary software
• Follow all ITS protocols for maintaining and updating the computer

Library Books

Fort Hill maintains a school library of children’s books for classroom use, a professional library for teachers, and classroom libraries with professional and children’s books. Teachers and administrators may recommend books to the assistant director, who manages the all-school professional and children’s libraries and places the orders. Supervising teachers manage the classroom libraries of professional and children’s books and obtain approval before submitting an Order Request Form for books.

The assistant director manages the professional library and the library of children’s books; supervising teachers manage classroom libraries. The resources in the professional and children’s libraries are available through an online system, Follett Destiny, which is shared with the Smith College Campus School. Teachers may suggest new titles or bring books to the assistant director for repair. The assistant director recalls books at the end of the academic-year and at the end of the summer program to prepare the libraries for renewed borrowing at the beginning of those sessions.

Children’s Library

The Children’s Library is centrally located in the large common and is available for teachers to check out books for classroom use. The library is organized by topic. Please access the scanner in the teachers room to  check books in or out. When returning books, please place the books in the baskets along the bottom shelf of the library.

Professional Library and Subscriptions

Fort Hill maintains a lending library of professional books in the teachers workroom; the library is managed by the assistant director. The books are included in the Follett database. Please scan books to check them in and out.  

The director maintains subscriptions to a variety of professional journals and organizations. The current issue of journals are on the table in the teachers workroom for all to access. Past issues are filed in storage containers on the top shelf of the row of desks along the wall bordering the hallway.

Classroom Libraries

Supervising teachers maintain the classroom professional library and classroom children’s library. The supervising teachers develop an accountability system for lending the professional books, request purchases for the libraries from the director (professional books) or the assistant director (children’s library), and fund these libraries with their classroom budget.

The director regularly purchases professional book for each classroom’s professional library. This book is available for teachers to borrow using the classroom lending system. Supervising teachers are responsible for maintaining the classroom professional library and ensuring that the collection remains intact.

The chart below details the budget categories. Supervising teachers monitor the classroom budget to ensure that the expenditures do not exceed the annual budget allocation.

 Submitting Orders

Summer Bulk Orders

Approval for Purchases

Order Form Submission