I want this NYC Public School to give me a piece of furniture they might be throwing away in the near future.

January 15, 2008 12:21 PM

I want this NYC Public School to give me a piece of furniture they might be throwing away in the near future.

Last week I came upon two amazing cabinets left on street with a pile of trash. I'm talking vintage 1950's Heywood Wakefield, going on Craig's List and E-bay for up to 2,000. My head almost exploded when my building's admin wouldn't let me bring it in because it was Sunday and I didn't have a "move in" scheduled. Obviously, the beautiful cabinets were gone before I had time to arrange the damn move in for Monday.

As I dashed up and down the street trying to look for some place to temporarily store it, I learned from a doorman that the stuff belonged to the Public School on the corner. The PS maintenance guys just brought the stuff out and left it there for trash.

So now I'm thinking the school could have another simmilar piece they might (or might not) be getting rid of in the future. And I want it. Bad. Before I make a total fool of myself going up to front desk and asking please can I have an old desk you may or may not have, I need some clues.

I am more than willing to pay them for the furniture, but I figure they probably can't sell school property just to anyone, right?

So in my mind the way it plays out perfectly is this: I manage to get a hold of the principal (maybe someone else?) and make sure they have what I want. I tell tem how bad I want it, and that I'd be happy to, say, give the kids a lecture about my country (Brazil), my profession (architect and urban planner), maybe even free Portuguese lessons in exchange for the cabinet/desk/whatever. They say it'd be great and we are all happy and I get myself some vintage Hey-Wake.

How naive am I?
Will I get kicked out? Called crazy?
Help.

posted by AnyGuelmann to grab bag (11 comments total)

if you are nice, you may be able to work out a "I didn't see anything" type of deal with whoever is in charge. small government authorities (at least the ones I've dealt with) don't like to accept money for old equipment, either due to liability or 'ethics' issues.

if they are unwilling to give it to you, and they have a lot more stuff, they may be open to the idea of an auction as a fundraiser, etc.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 12:39 PM on January 15, 2008

Can't hurt to start with the receptionist for the school. Take your query to the district office if they pass the buck.
posted by rhizome at 12:39 PM on January 15, 2008

As a PTA board member at my son's school, I see a lot of this. Definitely start with the receptionist for the school and ask for your request to be passed along to the principal *especially* if you are offering money or services as an exchange. School principals do have some discretion over where surplus equipment goes but if you get the district involved there will be paperwork and forms and liability releases flying back and forth and in the end, the school won't get your money or volunteer services and you probably won't get your cabinets.
posted by jamaro at 12:49 PM on January 15, 2008

Also, regarding offfering money: at least at the schools in my district, money raised outside of pre-approved fundraisers has to be reported by the school to the district, who usually takes the dough and doesn't give it back. The offering of services angle (or a offer to buy them some equipment as an exchange) will go much smoother.
posted by jamaro at 12:52 PM on January 15, 2008

Ask the receptionist. Explain your interest.
posted by Kioki-Silver at 12:56 PM on January 15, 2008

If the principal or anyone in the school administration knew or cared about furniture, these cabinets wouldn't have been put on the street. All you'll do by talking to them is wise them up.

Go straight to the maintenance guys, give them $50 and tell them there's another $50 in it for them if they can get you any desks or cabinets like the ones they threw out last week.
posted by nicwolff at 2:42 PM on January 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

nicwolff has it right, talk to the maintenance guys. anyone else and they will probably just say no for the sake of no being the easiest answer.
posted by lia at 2:49 PM on January 15, 2008

I used to work at a school that had 4 old but functional enlargers and other photo equipment that wasn't likely to be used. I suggested that maybe I could have some kids clean it up, take pictures of it and sell it on eBay.

Hoo boy.

Mistake.

MIStake.
MISTAKE.

This district was required by law to hold a public auction first and that had its own due process which required a stack of paperwork and public notices so many days ahead of time and school committee approval and I quickly figured out that it's just plain easier and more cost effective for small ticket items to throw/give them away. And that's what happened to perfectly good equipment that really could've raised enough money to buy a digital camcorder for the school.

And therein lies your hook. Ask the janitor or the head custodian first. And be as accommodating as possible to their schedule and don't ask for anything more than the objects themselves. Bring your own labor, your own transport etc. If the janitor says meet me by the back door at 3:17, that's where you'll be.

You may be going to the principal anyway--some janitors will just bump it up the chain, but if s/he has any sort of independence, it's his/her realm (because the principal gave it to him/her). You can offer the cultural lesson, but quite frankly, unless it's a young elementary school, this has limited value to a principal and much more value to an individual teacher. A good principal will pass on opportunities to teachers, but it can get touchy if a teacher feels like you're being forced on him/her from the principal. It might be more effective to say, "I'd love to meet with faculty to bring see how I might be able to bring some of my experience in Brazil/architecture/Portuguese/urban planning to the classroom." Trust me, this is different than offering to lecture.
And if you follow through, plan on asking the students as many questions as you can or do what you can to throw them off balance. For example, I did a unit on how to get images into web pages in a web class in a tiny, insular, xenophobic school district. Easy, right? Instead of lecture, I started the class speaking entirely Japanese. I ignored anything that was spoken in English and instead focused on getting them all to say (in Japanese) "Good morning, Mr. Plinth. How are you?" Then I presented them with hiragana and katakana strictly from a pronunciation point of view (again, no English). Then I worked on teaching them how to turn romanized words into katakana. Then came the assignment, which was to create a web page with a proper Japanese introduction and their name all rendered in hiragana and katakana images. There was very little lecture in there. And when I found out later that they were hounding the Japanese exchange student with questions, I knew I had won.

Consider coming in and speaking purely Portuguese with the goal of getting the students to speak a simple phrase and then focusing on questions like, "How did you feel when you couldn't understand me?" "How does it feel to know a little Portuguese?" "How many people do you think speak Portuguese?" "How many people here speak other languages than English?" "Why is it important to know more than English?" "What can you do if you know more than one or two languages?" "Why do you think Portuguese is important to me?" And so on.
posted by plinth at 5:24 PM on January 15, 2008

I'm voting for the janitor over the receptionist. plinth covers the janitor/maintenence person part well, but I've found that while receptionists are in the know, being in the know about discarded stuff is a bit beyond their realm of a) knowledge and b) power. Get lucky and the janitor'll give it to you or cheaply.
posted by jmd82 at 7:30 PM on January 15, 2008

And next time: pay off your super
posted by boots at 8:14 PM on January 15, 2008

Yeah, your supe was totally holding out for a Jackson. A hundo would've made every day move-in day. That's how it works!
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:19 AM on January 16, 2008