Hey folks! It’s finally time to order planners! It always makes me smile when I start getting emails and messages asking about next year’s planners. I know that this was a crazy school year, and you are looking ahead at an uncertain plan for next year. But I hope that picking out your planner helps you face the new year with optimism and excitement!

As always, I’ve got a few important updates for you. Please take just a few minutes and read these!

COVID-19 Concerns

I know, I know. I told myself I wouldn’t use the terms “unprecedented times” or “abundance of caution”, and I won’t. However, I want to make sure you’re aware of a couple issues that can affect planners.

School Calendars

I know that many school systems have already released updated calendars. As the CDC determines guidelines and state legislatures decide on recommendations or waivers, I believe there is a possibility calendars could change again.

However, at some point, I have to finalize my planner files with school calendars. I have all my printing done at a large printing company out of state, and I order well in advance of the delivery date to make sure they get here on time. This means if the school calendars are updated again in July, I cannot change my files again.

My plan is to wait until June 8, 2020 to pull all the school system calendars and customize the planner files. I know that it’s uncertain and less than ideal, but I cannot wait until late in the summer, or I run the risk of not finishing in time.

Please understand that once you place your order, you accept that I will use the school system dates as they are publicly available as of June 8, 2020. I will not reprint planners, provide discounts, or refund orders because of calendars changing.

If you are concerned about dates being incorrect, I do offer a generic planner. It has a full August – August calendar and all of the same teacher pages, but with no school system calendar.

Thank you very much for understanding!

Delivery

Here’s the other Covid-19 concern! If you’ve ordered anything online in these months of shelter-in-place, you may have experienced delays or other concerns. This is something that is largely out of the control of both the customer and the vendor. My small business is no different.

I have already contacted the printing company that I use and confirmed that they are up and running. Based on our conversation, I’m allowing extra time for printing and delivery, but I expect things to be running on time.

However – please understand that things can happen out of my control. In the 7 years that I’ve been making planners, I’ve been able to deliver 99% of orders on time, with few exceptions due to mistakes or shipping delays. I will always try to make it right if there is an issue. But as with the issue of calendars changing, please understand that I will not provide discounts or refund orders because of delays.

DEADLINES/PICKUP/SHIPPING

As always, I will be aiming to provide pickups the weekend prior to Columbia County’s preplanning.

Pickups

The first large pickup date will be Saturday, July 25 at the VOCE Studio in Evans. I will provide further information, as well as any necessary information to maintain social distancing and safety protocols. I will also offer pickups on the following Sunday, July 26, and Monday, July 27.

Delivery

School deliveries will be on July 27. Please note that I do not deliver to all schools. I usually deliver to a few schools (typically Grovetown Middle, Cedar Ridge Elementary. Columbia Middle, and Martinez Elementary) in Columbia County because there is a large number of orders from those schools. I cannot do home deliveries, and I can only offer a limited number of pickups at my house outside of the scheduled times.

After orders come in, I will update you with the schools that I will do deliveries for.

Shipping

If you cannot arrange for pickup at one of the scheduled times, you must pay for shipping.

Please note that selecting 2 day shipping does not mean your planner will arrive in 2 days. I know it can seem misleading because large retailers such as Amazon will ship immediately after your order, thus getting it to you in two days. I am a small local business. 🙂 To make the most efficient use of my working time and to keep shipping costs low, I typically wait for a large batch of orders, then process them all together and order them from the printing company which is out of state. Therefore your planner may not even be printed until several weeks after your order, and has to be shipped to me.

Selecting 2 day shipping on my site means that when the shipment of planners arrives from the printer, I will then ship your planner to you with 2 day shipping. That fee covers only the cost of packaging and mailing your planner through the USPS.

I am not offering rush orders this year. With potential delays from the printer and UPS, I would not feel right about charging so much extra and not being certain you would get your planner early.

PLACING ORDERS

All orders will be placed through my Shopify store! I’m happy to answer your questions via e-mail but make sure your orders are placed through the store. Shopify is a secure merchant that accepts all major credit cards, as well as PayPal.

Before going to the Shopify store, please visit this page to check out the options. There are a lot of options to choose from and it’s helpful to know what you’re looking at before getting into the actual order page. If you have questions you can always e-mail me.

UPDATES/CHANGES

Price Changes

I’m a big fan of transparency! You may notice that prices have gone up on the planners since last year. The cost of printing has increased since last year, and this is reflected in the increased prices. Most planner formats will reflect a $5 increase in price.

The index tabs are also slightly more than last year. Again, this is based on an increase in the cost from the vendor.

Formats

Based on orders from the last year or two, I pared down several of the formats. This year, I will not be offering the hybrid format or student formats. I will still be offering the many variations on the “Whimsy” interior style, including Administrator, School Counselor, Office/Staff, and Specials.

REMINDERS/REQUESTS

Contact Info

Please make sure that you provide me with the email address you use during the summer. I send a digital proof of each cover to make sure it’s correct before I have it printed. I also send pickup information to your email.

If you place an order and don’t receive a confirmation within a few minutes, please check your spam folders. Once you find the email, please indicate that it is not spam. If the confirmation email gets filtered to spam, it is highly likely that my other emails to you, including emails with pickup information, will also get filtered out.

This year I’ve also added a blank for you to include your phone number. It’s not required, but if I can’t get you through email, I may send you a single text to ask you for your approval or let you know your planner has arrived.

Contacting Me

Sparkle Pop Paper is all over the place! I have this website, an Etsy store, and several emails. I will do my best to stay in contact, but the BEST ways to contact me are:

• Email: jessica (at) sparklepoppaper.com or sparklepoppaper (at) gmail.com
• Facebook: through the SparklePop page; even if we are friends on Facebook, please send all planner-related business through the page

Etsy messages and comments on blog posts are really easy to miss. I rely heavily on email and Facebook notifications, so this is the best way to contact me!

Ready to Order?

I truly appreciate your interest and excitement – I smile every time I get a “when can I order my new planner” email! Please let me know if you have questions, and I’ll do my best to help you kick off a great school year.

Check out all the documentation here with explanations of your options!

Check out the premade cover gallery here!

Check out custom cover info here!

Order your planner here! – GOES LIVE JUNE 1, 2020!