Teachers throughout Connecticut say they have been prepping classrooms for weeks.

Pam Blackwall, a teacher at Northeast Elementary School in Stamford, says the start of a new school year can be a bit crazy. She says teachers have plenty of lesson planning and setting up to do.

"We have to pack everything up at the end of the year, so all the books come off the shelves and all the supplies get packed up," she says.  "Everything goes into boxes, so you're really pulling everything out all over again."

Some teachers say they pay for nearly everything in their classrooms.

Kim Hellthaler, a teacher at Tracey Elementary School in Norwalk, says she spends hundreds on supplies in a single school year.

“I would definitely say to start the school year, maybe $300, and then as it goes on I buy more,” she says.