Parent Teacher Week

Upper West Side sidewalks still feel like a classroom corridor in late August, backpacks and lunchboxes stacked in strollers, parents trading supply lists over iced coffee. Parent Teacher Week sits squarely in that back-to-school current, an educational supply store that has quietly outlasted every big-box chain that tried to muscle in. They deal in the kind of paper, binders, and calculators that actually survive September, plus the less glamorous but essential items—graph paper, protractors, three-subject notebooks—that most places only stock online. The storefront at 250 West 96th Street doesn’t advertise, relying instead on word-of-mouth from teachers who know where to send parents when the list says “no spirals.” School supplies are one of those categories where the neighborhood matters; what works for a Brooklyn charter might not fly in a Manhattan private school. Parent Teacher Week keeps the focus narrow enough to avoid the chaos of a mega-store, but broad enough to cover everything from kindergarten glue sticks to AP Biology dissection kits. If the list changes mid-shopping trip, you can call (212) 458-5201 and ask if they’ve got the right graphing calculator in stock. For directions, the map is here, though anyone who’s walked these blocks already knows the corner. Come Labor Day, the place will be packed, but that’s just proof it’s doing what it’s supposed to.