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14
WINTER
2012
Q:The elementary school buildings are
almost complete.The next step is equip-
ping the buildings. You have been pains-
takingly selecting the needed furniture.
There is a huge choice out there.What
specifications are you looking for?
As with every decision made at IC, the
first priority is the health and safety of
the students. You wouldn’t believe what
the corner of a pointed table can do to a
student’s face if someone unfortunately
falls right on the point. So, the first thing
we look for are student tables and desks
that have rounded and covered edges.
Seating needs to be ergonomically sound.
All the furniture needs to be appealing in
color and design and reasonably priced.
I know that’s a tall order, but we did
identify several companies in the United
States that fit the bill. Since the market in
the USA is so large, these companies have
furniture that is very attractively priced
and much cheaper than what is found
in Lebanon and Europe.The health and
safety standards are excellent as well.
In addition to the regular classrooms, we
have a number of special areas that will
be furnished.The theater requires special
seating and we’re using a company that
specializes in theater seating.The chairs
will be attractive and comfortable.The
music rooms and art rooms also require
special furniture. We used an architect
who specializes in school furniture to help
with the selections of the equipment for
offices, theater, outdoor play areas and
gymnasiums. He met with me and the
teachers from these areas and showed us
catalogs and samples of products for our
selection. I think we did an excellent job
and this will be evident when we start to
use the building.
Q: Can you tell us about the logistics of
the move. It’s a huge task to move 750
students into the new buildings. How do
you plan to do that?
Well, I have had the “pleasure” of making
some similar moves in other schools that I
have worked in before.The most compli-
cated is setting up the new classrooms.
The new furniture will be installed later
this fall.The teachers will have to unpack
their books and materials and arrange
everything in the classrooms prior to the
students coming into the building.This
is a time consuming task and we had to
schedule an extra week of vacation for the
students in order to have the time to com-
plete this job. Also, we have to remember
that this is a new building for our faculty.
We need to have time to orient them to
the new building so that they, in turn,
can show the students where they need to
go. Of course, the first think that we will
review with the teachers is the Emergency
Evacuation Plan so that they can get their
students out of the building safely.
But, let me go back to the first part of
the move. We will be leaving Reynold’s
Hall which is a very big building stuffed
with thousands of books, teaching sup-
plies, active boards, laptop carts, laptops,
desktop computers, medical supplies, files,
etc.There’s a lot in that building! Most of
it will be boxed up the week before the
Christmas holiday begins. Each box will
be labeled with the new room number.
All the “stuff ” will be moved into the
correct place in the new building over the
holiday.Then the unpacking begins! For-
tunately, we will have new student desks,
teacher desks, office desks, file cabinets,
etc. already placed in the new building so
we don’t have to move that equipment.
Getting Ready to move:
Q & A with IC President John Johnson