Teachers - do you get charged extra for electricity?

I know for a fact that our district does not charge for those things because as a long-time substitute in one school, and friends with some teachers, I would have heard of it. One teacher I sub for regularly uses multiple lamps around the room instead of the overhead lights because she says it's more relaxing. It is in fact. Many teachers have mini fridges also, and some have microwaves. Space heaters aren't allowed by the fire code. Can't think of anything else teachers usually have plugged in that's not specifically for an educational purpose.

Dh's district does not charge. Nor does the one ds is in.

No. That's ridiculous. Can you imagine someone in a corporate office being charged to plug in a desk lamp?

 Why would a school charge for the use of electricity for the use of a lamp or mini fridge?

Does each room have a separate electricity reader for each room?  How would anyone know exactly how much electricity is used in each room and how many kWh does each lamp use? 

How would you know how many watts an appliance uses and how long this appliance is being used so that the kW can be properly converted into the kWh?

Just when I thought I’d heard it all 😱. No, teachers are not charged for electricity. That said, there are certain things they cannot have (like mini fridges) bc they overload our very outdated electrical system and string lights (fire hazard).

I’ve heard of teachers having to pay a flat rate of $25 if they wanted to have a mini-fridge or microwave. But I have never experienced ir myself.

Well, since you have posted that you live in a privileged and entitled environment and that it’s classist and elitist, why wouldn't your school charge the teachers $60./semester.  The teachers probably don't live in your *bubble* and their car's are probably not as stylish and new as your community has, so why not charge them for parking in your precious school.  It's not that they can use public transportation as that is looked down by you (as stated in previous posts).

Somehow a question like this would be something that would be discussed in your area.  Why should a teacher be able to charge their phone on (literally) your dime? 

I used to have a mini fridge in my classroom. I was a LONG way from the teacher's lounge, drinking fountains, bathrooms, etc. So it was handy to have a place for cold water or to leave my lunch if I weren’t going to the lounge. Other people had fridges, coffee makers, lamps, popcorn poppers, etc.

Then, they banned them all and we had to take them home unless you had special permission. I think fans were still allowed, as I always had at least one fan in any of my classrooms, until the last year when the building had geothermal heating/cooling.

So there is a new policy this year that if you plug anything that is not school property into an electric outlet (including but not limited to a mini fridge, a fan, lamps, speakers, a phone charger), you must pay the school a flat rate of $60/semester. Microwaves, coffee pots, mini Keurig, and hot plates are not allowed in any case.

That is some strange list on top of the schools NOT providing needed school supplies ..
I could see heat devices for cooking, but the rest, no!

And there are school systems that are hiring people who may not even have college degrees to teach without other experience. Thousands of teacher openings nationwide.

No and my union would fight it if they tried.

Of course each wing of our building has a teacher kitchenette with a fridge and dishwasher

I'm more stunned that a teacher would have that many plugs in their room. I have two plugs in my room, so 4 outlets that have to be used for computer, printer, projector and whatever apparatus I want to use -light box, laminator, electric pencil sharpener, etc- on a rotating basis. We aren't allowed to have any of those cords that have the extra plugs in them either. I wouldn't have any ability to have a fridge or phone charger or coffee maker plugged in.
But no, no one is charged for electricity as far as I know.

Yes, it's that buzzing that's so horrible, in addition to the harsh light. 

Thankfully our classrooms seem to have enough outlets, although teachers also use the power strips. And some have string lights. We had a fire inspection one day while I was subbing and I was in a classroom with power strips, lamps, and string lights. His biggest concern (I asked him...he told me to continue on with teaching and to ignore him, but clearly he's never taught a room full of 3rd graders...as if they were just going to keep on listening to me with a fire inspector in the room, hahaha) -- anyway, his biggest concern was space heaters and things like hot plates. 

He also gave demerits to the library where they have extension cords snaked from the wall to the desk with the computers. The cords were under that heavy duty tape but apparently they weren't supposed to be using them at all. Problem is that the desks were basically bolted into the floor away from the walls. So, if the librarians want to check out books using the computer they needed to power that computer. lol

One year paying was threatened, but it never happened.