In anticipation for the 2025-2026 school year, alternative and currently existing seating will be completely removed from Gretna High School and will be replaced by new furniture. This installation will officially start on June 2, with teachers being asked to clear out their personal furniture on May 24. In an email from Principal Todd Mueller sent to faculty, it stated that the new furniture “allows for uniformity and a ‘cleaner’ look to the building.” These new rules are being implemented to create a professional academic space, according to administration.
“ I think there’s something to be said about being proud of your building and the way it looks,” Superintendent Travis Lightle said. “But, on the other hand, it also has to be functional.”
Each classroom will be provided with one teacher desk, one portable teaching podium, one teacher chair and 28 student chair and desk combos. The foreign language and language art rooms will also be provided with one bookshelf.
“ Our current desks, you can’t hold much more than a notebook or a book on there,” Principal Todd Mueller said. “Put a book and a notebook, it gets pretty crowded. This way, you would be able to put your laptop, a notebook and a book on and be fine.”
This furniture revamp is being implemented in the hopes to make classrooms more structured and to have students be able to work more efficiently. This is in addition to promoting teamwork inside the classroom, as the new desks will be able to be pushed together and form something that looks more like a table.
“ I think it’ll help student learning because, again, I understand that if you’re sitting in those little slide desks, which are terribly uncomfortable, that’s going to negatively impact your learning,” Mueller said. “ What this allows teachers to do is they can go everywhere from individual student stations to groups of two, three, four, where they can arrange it. It allows so much more flexibility within the classroom for teachers to do better student engagement.”
Any kind of alternative seating – like swivel chairs, couches and stools – will no longer be allowed in the building. If any are left in classrooms by the end of their established deadline, they will be removed from the building. This is just step one in their remodeling plan.
“ What’s coming in the future is improved lighting in the classrooms, carpet replacement, painting the walls,” Mueller said.
Teachers from across the school have expressed differing opinions on the furniture’s upcoming replacements. While some agree with administration, others, like GHS English teacher and alum, Jennifer Long, have expressed disappointment in how extensive the change will be.
“Like all things, I can see both sides and I understand why the decision was made the way that it was,” Long said. “However, having teachers have a little bit of agency in what’s chosen for them makes it easier or just having a little bit of decision making would make it feel less bruised for some teachers. Please remember that I am only speaking for the handful of teachers that I have heard from on the matter or spoken to. I am certainly not the mouthpiece for teachers.”
Similar to other teachers, Long’s classroom is a representation of her tenure at GHS. Her room is filled with a variety of furniture, decoration and mementos that she has collected since her time in her classroom.
“The most important thing that I am really going to miss is the podium that I teach from, because my dad made it for me, and it’s custom,” Long said. “It used to be like a kitchen island, and he upcycled it into this teaching podium for me as a gift when I became a teacher 21 years ago, and I’ve never taught without it, and it really can’t be duplicated or replaced, so that’s going to be a tough thing to lose.”
In contrast, several teachers are looking forward to a fresh reset for their classrooms and furniture.
“ I’ve been asking on my budget for new furniture for about five years, and it kept getting turned down, so I was excited,” teacher Kelli Struve said. “I was quite excited to get new furniture, since most of mine is held together with, like, duct tape.”
While Gretna East has had this new kind of furniture since they opened last school year, GHS will be furnishing the building in this upcoming school year, as they now have the funds to replace all existing furniture.
”We’ve been planning for updating our buildings, and every time we pass a bond, we always put a little bit of money in to update all of the buildings,” Lightle said. “And then you have something called the Special Building Fund, which is for the buildings to make sure that our buildings are (modernized), you don’t want to get behind. “
Administrators have said that they expect this change to be challenging or difficult for some teachers, since over time, many teachers have brought a variety of furnishings into their classrooms. However, this has not changed their stance on the upgrade.
”It’s going to be a mix. I understand that there’s some teachers that really love the classrooms that they have, and there’s some teachers that are more than happy to do this,” Mueller said. “I mean, it’s just like anything, any other big change when you have a group of people: some are going to love it, some are going to not like it, some are going to be indifferent to it.”
Sawyer Long also contributed to the story.
Ian S Wasalaski • Mar 4, 2025 at 10:25 am
I think furniture that teachers want to keep should be allowed for them to keep, as that is what they like teaching from. I also think that swivel chairs are a good for students who can’t not fidget in their seats.