Lake Highlands Elementary teachers didn’t do a lot of lounging in their teacher lounge last fall.
It had been more than 10 years since the room had been updated. White walls and fluorescent lighting gave it a stark, sterile feeling. The carpet was ragged. The black and white plaid couch was worn out. And over the years, many of the room’s decorations had disappeared.
Many teachers opted to eat lunch in their classrooms.
But building teacher morale is important to LHE principal Kim Sullivan, and giving teachers a place to relax became a priority.
“I read a book called ‘If You Don’t Feed the Teachers, They Will Eat the Students,’” Sullivan says.
She asked parents Mary Beth Hickman and Dawn Gray to renovate the teacher’s lounge. The two jumped on the job, visiting several lounges at other schools and churches, plus several coffee houses.
“You feel a personal attachment to all the teachers,” Gray says. “You want to do something for them.”
They rounded up donations from several neighborhood businesses, including Home Depot and The Store. The PTA’s hospitality committee and the school’s Dad Club also donated money.
“I have to put a plug in for this community,” Sullivan says. “If we need something, they get it for us. They go over and beyond the call of duty.”
The day after Christmas, Hickman, Gray, several other PTA members and their children came to the school and worked on the room. It was like the set of the reality decorating show “While You Were Out”. For more than a week, they spent eight hours a day working on the lounge — painting, laying new carpet, and moving and putting together furniture.
Leather chairs replaced the old couch. Three black round tables with chairs were added to the room. The faucet was replaced, and the cabinets painted. New accessories were added, including framed black and white photos of LHE students taken by Angel Cochran, and signs stating “chill” and “patience”. The walls were painted with warm earth tone colors to give the room a Starbucks’ feel.
“The custodians would come in and scratch their heads,” Gray says. “Then, toward the end, they would say, ‘Now we get it.’”
When the room was complete, the volunteers hung a huge red bow on the outside of the door. The teachers saw it their first day back.
“Oh, my gosh!” was the reaction of many of the teachers, says Hilary Puckett, the school’s science teacher. “A lot of teachers used to not use the lounge. They stayed in their classrooms. Now they eat in here together. It has created a community.”
