District Administration - June 2008 - (Page 39)

Quiet, Sturdy Carpets When the Houston County (Ga.) Schools installed 3.8 million square feet of new carpeting in all its classrooms and administrative areas more than 10 years ago, it selected carpet tiles from Shaw Contract Group, a leading ﬂooring provider, and it hasn’t been sorry. “It never, ever wears out. We’ll dirty it out before we wear it out. We clean it once a year,” says Cecil Parker, the district’s director of maintenance. Other carpeting usually requires more frequent cleaning. Parker cannot calculate how much it has saved the district in lower maintenance costs and a longer life cycle, but he knows the district made the right choice when it went for tiles instead of roll carpeting. With tiles, if an area of carpet goes bad, usually from wear, “you just take out a few pieces and replace them” instead of replacing the entire carpet, Parker says. But Houston County hasn’t had to do that. It’s lasted for 10 years, Parker says. Carpet tiles are worthy for a “better return on your investment,” agrees Susan Buchanan, project manager for VFA, a Boston-based ﬁrm that helps districts strategically manage their facility assets and maximize their capital investments. According to studies by the Carpet and Rug Institute and other organizations, K12 teachers overwhelmingly like carpet more than hard ﬂooring in classrooms. They believe it absorbs noise, adds a touch of homelike comfort and improves the learning environment for students. “Children learn through having teachers speak to them, so acoustics are vitally important. Carpets can virtually eliminate any noise from the movement of chairs and desks and the scuﬄing of feet,” says Daniel Collins, director of education markets for Shaw. “It’s important that students in the back of the class hear just as well as the ones in front,” asserts David Daughtrey, director of education for The Mohawk Group, another carpet company. With hard-surface ﬂoors, sounds resonate throughout the room, but carpet deadens sounds so they don’t echo, he adds. www.DistrictAdministration.com Also, there is no distracting glare oﬀ carpet from light coming through classroom windows as there sometimes is oﬀ hard ﬂooring, Daughtrey adds. Further, says Collins, carpets help to improve indoor air quality by acting as a ﬁlter for contaminants. And teachers who stand for long periods in front of their classes get less “leg fatigue” from carpet than from hard ﬂoors, says Daughtrey. Fiber and the backing system are the key factors in determining carpet’s qualities and how it will hold up under heavy foot traﬃc, soiling, staining and cleaning. The ﬁber is usually nylon, but the backing is even more important, Daughtrey and Collins agree. Good backing prevents spills, stains and debris from “ﬂowing through” to the carpet bottom, causing odors and bacteria and cleaning dif- 08 08 June 2008 39 http://www.poweringperformance08.com http://www.poweringperformance08.com http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2008

District Administration - June 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Inside the Law
Conversations
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Crisis Response
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Cutting Costs from the Inside Out
New Literacies: Entering the Future
Online Videoconferencing
Achievement Today
Transporting Special Needs Students
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem/Solution
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - June 2008