MISQUAH — Lakeside’s supply lists are out, and the fourth grade’s is, as ever, the one that stops people. Twelve glue sticks. Not four, not six. Twelve, per child, which the fourth-grade teachers explain — patiently, annually, to a fresh set of parents — is not a mistake and is based on data.

The full lists are posted at the school office, in the window at First State Bank, on the corkboard at Tim’s, and at Sorensen Hardware, which is not a school-supply store and which has nevertheless laid in composition books, wide-rule, for the first time since 2020, on the reasoning that Walt Sorensen articulated as follows: “People are going to be in here in the last week of August anyway. Might as well have what they need.”

The essentials, by grade: Kindergarten — a backpack big enough to hold a folder without bending it, a change of clothes in a labeled bag, and one box of tissues; the office notes that the labeled bag is the item most often forgotten and most often needed. Grades 1–3 — pencils, crayons or colored pencils by grade, scissors, folders in the assigned colors (which are assigned for a reason and are not negotiable), and headphones. Grade 4 — the glue sticks. Grades 5–6 — a three-ring binder, loose leaf, and a calculator of a specified type the office asks families not to upgrade beyond. Grades 7–12 — posted by teacher; students are advised the first-week lists are the real ones and the summer lists are a rumor.

Families needing help with supplies are asked to call the office, where the arrangement is the same as it has been for years, is handled by one person, is not discussed, and has never once run out. The Lions and the Ladies’ Aid both quietly stock it in August. This newspaper mentions it once a year, in this paragraph, and then leaves it alone.

School opens Wednesday, September 2 — before Labor Day for the first time in district history. Buses run the posted routes. The Loon Ridge Road stop moved last spring and has stayed moved, and the office has asked us to say so one final time, and this is it.