School Furniture Blog

Think about walking through a “big box” store that carries everything you need in your school and the surrounding schools in your district.  Can you imagine the cost savings you could achieve?  Well think about it in another way.  How about partnering with other schools to increase you buying power and drive deeper discounts?  Volume buying saves money.  Read below to see how some districts are obtaining better pricing through this policy.

by Michael Fickes
 

K-12 schools turn to piggybacking, local, regional and national coops, and any other strategy that can produce volume price cuts, lower administrative costs and faster turnaround.

Jeff Kimball purchases supplies for approximately 160 school districts in Pennsylvania and Maryland. As the cooperative purchasing services manager with the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU), Kimball will spend $400,000 on behalf of 170 organizations, including the 160 school districts during 2004. Goods include computer and copier supplies, paper, cafeteria and custodial supplies, athletic supplies, cellular phones, art supplies, nonperishable foods and just about any other K-12 school supply you can imagine.

Under a program sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, CSIU also solicits bids for major lines of computer equipment on behalf of Pennsylvania school districts, other intermediate units, vo-tech schools, approved private schools and state libraries.

Still another CSIU program enables members to purchase new roofs from top national roofing manufacturers, who have re-evaluated their prices to get on the coop’s list.

To read more, click here.
 

How many of us can remember that first day or Kindergarten or Preschool?  I remember my sweaty hand being held and hiding behind my mothers dress.  Even then I did not like to go into places where I was a stranger.  Stop and think about those experiences and how they can shape the way students feel about school for the rest of their lives.
Is that first day a day of bright colors and fun surroundings or a day of bland colors and rigid rules.

by JOHN R. FLYNN

A plan for designing an effective and useful early childhood education center.
 

According to U.S. Office of Education reports, two decades ago, only 10 states were providing pre-kindergarten programs. Currently, it is reported that 39 states and the District of Columbia provide support for pre-k programs. States are contributing about $4 billion to pre-kindergarten and childcare programs. In 2001, states spent in excess of $1.9 billion for more than 765,000 children to attend pre-k. In its publication, The Condition of Education 2004, the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that pre-primary enrollment increased by 20 percent, from 1993 to 2003. It is noted that an important aspect of this increase is the participation of children in full-day programs. In 2003, approximately 56 percent of the children attended full-day programs, compared to 40 percent in 1993.

 The recognition of the positive impact of early childhood programs on the cognitive development of pre-school age children, as well as a variety of social and economic factors, has created public pressure for the availability of pre-kindergarten education programs, not only in urban areas, but in suburban and rural areas as well. The material that follows is intended to provide a conceptual framework on which to develop the general design requirements for an early childhood education center. It is not intended to provide educational specifications for instructional and support spaces, the design of which are situational, in that they should respond to programmatic requirements established by the school district. Compliance with applicable federal, state and local requirements is assumed.

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Often times when Districts are looking to purchase school furniture, they start and end their search with price.  This can often be a mistake.  Read below to see all the criteria that should be used when selecting the best school furniture to purchase.

By Thomas G. Dolan

There is a lot more than final price to be considered when purchasing furnishings for your schools.

When purchasing school furniture and furnishings, price is certainly an important consideration, but it is far from being the only one. Other factors that have to be taken into consideration are quality, comparison shopping, user preference, vendor reliability, delivery, setup and installation, removal of packing materials and cleanup, maintenance and repair, the bid, the warranty and what to do if the promise you’ve been given is broken. Let’s take a brief look at each of these factors:

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Times are changing, and our ways of furnishing schools will have to change with it if we are to keep up.  Gone are the stationary desks, here are the multifunction spaces and furniture to match. by Jay B. Richards

Thoughtful consideration of both current and future uses will yield effective spaces furnished with serviceable furniture that can be reconfigured for multiple uses

In Ohio, one of the most comprehensive school rebuilding programs in history is underway. Since 1997 more than $4 billion has been spent to rebuild entire school districts. Of the 614 school districts in Ohio’s 88 counties, nearly one-third have now been served by the Ohio School Facilities Commission’s numerous programs. Districts participate with the state of Ohio in the co-funding of their project based on their per-pupil valuation. Those with the less per-pupil valuation contribute less to the total project budget, whereas those districts with the greatest per-pupil valuation contribute the more. In addition to the expected expenses for design and construction of the physical features of the building, the program budget also allows money based on the building’s square footage for supplemental necessities like technology and loose furnishings.

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