Caesars, foundation donate $750,00 to education group

Music teacher Scott Taflin regularly peruses the aisles of gently used school supplies available at the Public Education Foundation's Teacher Exchange center.

Every other week, Taflin, a 19-year Clark County School District veteran who teaches at Sunrise Acres Elementary School, fills his car with recycled notebooks, pens and other supplies for students in need of essentials or new teachers setting up their classrooms.

Taflin said the exchange has "made a huge difference. I've got thousands of items in my room right now."

On Friday, Caesars Entertainment Corp. and the Caesars Foundation pledged to support the Teacher Exchange with a $750,000 grant to be used over the next three years.

This is the second three-year grant the gaming operator's private foundation has awarded the Public Education Foundation since 2008. The company's contributions to the nonprofit total $1.5 million.

The Teacher Exchange was launched in 2002 as an emporium of recycled school supplies where teachers like Taflin can donate $20 in exchange for 500 points to spend on supplies. Rows of notebooks, journals, backpacks, T-shirts and even televisions line the exchange's southwest valley warehouse at 3165 W. Sunset Road.

Teachers typically spend $1,600 out-of-pocket every year to set up their classrooms, Public Education Foundation President Judi Steele said.

In the last four years, teachers have picked up more than 1 million items valued at $3 million from the exchange.

Caesars on Friday also contributed a bus full of notepads, pens and other supplies collected from meetings and conventions at its Las Vegas properties to four Clark County School District middle schools. The school supply donation is part of the company's CodeGreen sustainability initiative. Every year, Caesars' sales and meetings teams donate $43,000 in supplies left over from conventions at its resorts.

The Public Education Foundation relies on private donations, many from local businesses, of gently used supplies to stock the shelves of the Teacher Exchange. Caesars' $1.5 million commitment to the Teacher Exchange is the largest donation the program has received.

Contributing to the Southern Nevada public education system is a tenet of the Caesars Foundation's philanthropy.

"When you have a ready-to-work work force, there's a huge benefit to all businesses," said Rick Mazer, Caesars Entertainment's regional vice president. "One of the more difficult things to do is when you go out and recruit and end up interviewing folks who are not prepared to enter the work force.

"That's costly to every business, either from not hiring, or hiring and having extensive basic training that has to occur in addition to the job training," Mazer said.

The $750,000 grant will be used over the next three years for overhead, transporting school supplies, finding new donors and developing the Teacher Exchange website for educators who can't make it to the southwest Las Vegas warehouse, Steele said.

Clark County School District Superintendent Dwight Jones urged the district's administrators to contribute to the program by sponsoring a teacher's membership to the Teacher Exchange. Jones said he plans to sponsor his 8-year-old son's Stuckey Elementary teacher.

Contact reporter Caitlin McGarry at
cmcgarry@lvbusinesspress.com or 702-387-5273.