Carpet One, a retailer in NW Arkansas, ran a contest to donate carpeting to a local school library and the Jefferson Elementary School (Springdale AR) was the winner. But in view of the fact that the school is soon to be replaced with a new building, Carpet One agreed to donate the equivalent sum of cash ($2,000) in lieu of the new carpet.
The article includes some interesting details about possible ‘voting irregularities’ regarding which school was to receive the carpet (i.e., stuffing the ballot box, no touch screens involved), but the story has a happy ending, from NW Arkansas News.
carpet?
I’d take the money too. There’s no way on earth you’d get me to allow carpet in my library. It’s a dust, mold and other yucky things magnet. In fact we are not allowed to put carpeting in new schools built in our province. We have nice tile floors and we have mats for the kids to sit on during story time. To me, the health risks from carpeting just aren’t worth it.
I mean, I had two kids throw up in the library last year–no WAY you’d ever get that all out, given the types of products our cleaning staff is allowed to use (enviro friendly, nothing oil based, nothing that comes in an aerosol, nothing heavily scented).
The part that amazed me was this:
“The school’s annual instructional budget for library materials is about $10,000, so an additional $2,000 amounts to a 20-percent increase.”
I quickly looked on their website but could find no numbers of students, but given the number of classes I’d say they’re not even twice the size of my school. $10,000. I get 10% of that. Of course if I had $10,000 I wouldn’t know what to do with it! Just kidding I could spend it for sure. I think I’d buy a multi user version of Alex to start with. Wow.
s/