By Aren Framil, Co-Editor-in-Chief
On Oct. 8 and 9, T/E School District held a sealed bid sale of used surplus furniture and workspaces at the 1200 West Swedesford Road property, which it intends to use as a sixth elementary school, in hopes of clearing out old office furniture from the building. Community members could browse the building’s three stories and place bids on lots including desks, chairs, couches, filing cabinets, cubicles, stools and other miscellaneous items. On Oct. 11, winners will receive notice of any winning bids and will be able to pick up their items from Oct. 21-25.
Director of Educational Program Dr. Mike Szymendera helped host the public auction and says that the sale is part of the district’s plan to repurpose the building’s existing furniture before starting to plan renovations.
“We’re looking at furniture liquidators. We’re looking at recycling options. We’re looking at all sorts of different options to prevent as much of it as possible from being thrown away,”
Szymendera said. “It (the sale) is to empty the building before construction starts and hopefully repurpose as much of the furniture as possible.”
On Sept. 4, before the public sale, the district invited teachers to come in and take furniture items for classroom use, free of charge.
“Lots of (the furniture) has been repurposed throughout the district, so some could end up in this school. You see some at Conestoga. It’s in all the schools already. This is just what’s left after all the schools took everything they could use,” Szymendera said. “We’re just finishing this process so that we can get the construction started.”
Conestoga chemistry teacher Leah Roberts attended the sale along with other district staff and took chairs, stools with built-in filing cabinets and a folding table for her classroom.
“There was a good amount of elementary school teachers, I would say. Not a ton from high school, some from middle school (in attendance),” Roberts said. “I just thought it was a cool opportunity. It was nice that they gave us that opportunity to go and just see what was there.”
Aren Framil can be reached at [email protected].