Gaskill Preparatory School provides free supplies for students

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Gaskill Preparatory School in Niagara Falls opens its doors to students in just over a week.

“I’m super excited to meet the new incoming seventh graders,” said Derek Zimmerman, the principal of Gaskill Prep. “I would say just the biggest thing for us is to be consistent and to be here every single day.”

The school’s improvement planning committee is getting everything ready before the bell rings, including free school supplies.

“One of our priority areas is school attendance and school attendance has its barriers,” Zimmerman said. “One of the barriers we try to break down is preparedness and when a student is not prepared, that could be the one very thing that holds them from coming to school.”

They’re erasing the need for sending home back-to-school shopping lists as they’re providing all the smaller supplies that their students might need to succeed in the classroom. They only ask students to bring their own backpacks or bags.

“We decided, you know what, let’s prioritize, let’s budget, and let’s get every student their supplies, so that’s one thing that’s out of the way for some families that, unfortunately, may not be able to afford everything,” he said.

They say parts of their school budget, grant funding and donations all help make it possible for them to order these supplies for more than 450 students this school year. They expect anywhere from $5,000 to $6,000 to be spent on supplies.

“It takes a little bit of that anxiety of the first day of school and pushes it to the side,” he said. “Hopefully students can focus on other things that are important to them.”

Pencils to color with, pens to write everything down, and notebooks to study are all being provided for students in need. All they ask in return from students is to understand the importance of being in the classroom.

“It has to be a priority to be here,” he said. “To start setting those good habits of getting up every day, getting on time and being here in front of your teachers, and that’s 95 percent of the battle. Get here, get here every day, we will do the rest. We’ll make sure you’re successful.”

Zimmerman says they hope to continue providing supplies for students in future school years.

Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here .