April 2019
FOR PEOPLE WHO SELL TO TEACHERS, PARENTS AND SCHOOLS
A Win-Win The business of creating achievers
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When I was in junior high school, there was one teacher who had a unique method for establishing order in his classroom. I swear I’m not making this up. On the first day of school in September, he would pick out one male student who he perceived to be a potential troublemaker, and he would wait for that kid to make a false move. Once he got that pretext, he would escort the offender out into the hall. The hallway was lined with lockers, and the teacher would back the student up against a locker. He would then cup his hand under the student’s chin, and bang the kid’s head on the locker a few times, which made an enormous racket. The noise was the point, of course. It was sort of like the stocks or the dunking stool of our Puritan past, in which the public humiliation of the accused is meant to intimidate the crowd as much as anything else. It worked. As the rest of us sat there openmouthed, it was pretty clear that nobody else wanted to be subjected to that sort of spectacle. He never did it again, for that semester. The technique caused more shock than pain, and as far as I know never resulted in a concussion, but still. Can you imagine what the reaction to this sort of violence would be today? I’m pretty sure the teacher would be led out of school in handcuffs by close of day, and the whole incident would have gone viral. A more important question would be this. What changed? I thought I knew the answer, and perhaps you think you know it as well, but in my case it turns out I was wrong. I assumed that the change could
be traced back to the Supreme Court of the United States, and specifically to the liberal court of the 1960s under Earl Warren. I remember having the impression at the time that the court had established that students had “rights,” such as the right not to have one’s head bashed into a steel locker. Last August, an article appeared in The New York Times entitled “Do Public School Students Have Constitutional Rights?” written by a law professor named Justin Driver. According to the article, there was indeed a movement by the high court to recognize student rights, which can be traced back to a 1943 decision regarding the American flag. Even in the middle of the Second World War, the court ruled that students could not be compelled to salute the flag any more than an adult could. In 1969, the court made the decision that gave many of us the notion we have about student rights. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the court ruled that a school could not prevent a student from wearing a black armband as an antiwar protest, unless it could prove that doing so interfered with the maintenance of school discipline or the rights of others. In other words, students have first amendment rights. Driver’s point, however, is that more conservative courts of the 1970s and ’80s reversed much of that movement. In 1977, for example, the court ruled that corporal punishment in schools did not violate the Constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore permissible. Since that time, the great majority (continued on page 5)
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April 2019 Volume 44, No 2 FOR PEOPLE WHO SELL TO TEACHERS, PARENTS AND SCHOOLS
3
The Issue
8
It’s Right on the Way
Law & Order by Kevin Fahy
Ed and Diane Vogel make sure shoppers can’t miss GA School Supply in Macon, Georgia. Go with the Flow Here are some tips for squashing distractions and focusing on the work at hand.
8
13
16
Mission Focused
18
Winners!
20 27
Mark Hubbard from school furniture manufacturer Paragon shares his insight on today’s market. E-Blox and Primary Concepts bring home awards from ECRM in February.
20
The Dot Connector Q and A with Jim Koplow
Departments
Educational Dealer Welcomes Four New Advertisers
22
16
Cool & Hot
Innovations in the furniture & equipment category
24 New & True 28 Eye on Education 31 Industry News 38 Index of Advertisers
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THE ISSUE (continued from page 3) of states, including my home state of New York, has enacted regulations that prohibit corporal punishment in public schools. So a major change in education that I had always attributed to the Supreme Court was in fact not its doing. Professor Driver also refers to the 1985 court decision in New Jersey v. T.L.O. The case was about a 14-yearold female student who was caught smoking in the restroom. The school searched the girl’s purse and found marijuana, along with a letter which implied that she was selling it to other students. Her lawyer argued that the school had violated the Constitutional ban against unreasonable search and seizure, but the court held that the search was appropriate. That ruling has given schools broad authority to conduct searches, and has severely limited privacy rights for students. All of this made me question whether I really know anything at all about the Supreme Court’s effect on our educational system. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to find out. Fortunately, there is a museum in Philadelphia called The National Constitution Center, and it publishes an online newsletter, the Constitution Daily, which answers just such questions. On its website I found an article entitled, “10 Important Supreme Court Cases About Education.” It included the two mentioned above, plus eight others. In chronological order, they begin with the only one I could have named myself. In the landmark 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the court established that “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” and ordered the end of racially segregated schools. The court did not tell us how to go about desegregating schools amid a largely segregated population, and 65 years later that problem remains unsolved. The next two decisions are lumped (continued on page 6)
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A brand of Fahy-Williams Publishing Inc. THE ISSUE (continued from page 5)
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together, because they were made in consecutive years and established essentially the same thing. In Engle v. Vitale (1962) and Abbington School District v. Schempp (1963), the Warren Court said that public schools could not conduct prayer services, even if they were nondenominational and even if students could opt out. Teachers are considered to be agents of the federal government, and thus cannot endorse a particular type of prayer. In 1971, the court considered a different side of the Establishment Clause in Lemon v. Kurtzman, which challenged the ability of a state or local government to provide funding for teacher salaries and educational materials in parochial schools. The court ruled that such funding represented too much entanglement between government and religion, and I don’t think it’s entirely coincidental that there are now fewer than half as many parochial schools as there were in the 1960s. The Catholic high school in my town closed several years ago. The following year, in Wisconsin v. Yoder, the court handled still another sticky question regarding religion. Wisconsin mandated that all children must attend school until age 16, but an Amish man argued that education past eighth grade was unnecessary to the Amish lifestyle and would tend to corrupt their faith. The court agreed. I’m not really sure what to say about this one. During the same term, the court made a ruling that I found to be the most interesting of all. In San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the school district claimed that its students were denied equal protection under law because the district’s low property taxes resulted in less money for education. The court disagreed, stating that the Constitution does not specifically guarantee the right to an education. So all those rights we think students have? Apparently not that one.
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Here’s another one that got by me. In 1990, Congress passed into law the “Gun-Free School Zones Act,” which prohibited firearms in schools. The law was challenged by a student in Texas who felt that he had a Constitutional right to carry a gun, leading to a 1995 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Lopez. The court ruled that Congress had indeed exceeded its authority, because school regulations were the business of state governments. The most recent educational landmark was the 2007 case with the awkward title of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle. The former challenged the latter over the city school district’s practice of using race as one of the factors in deciding which students were granted admission to the most competitive public schools. According to the Constitution Center, the court “determined that its earlier decisions for college affirmative action do not apply to public schools and that racial diversity is not a compelling government interest for public school admission. Furthermore, they held that denial of admission to a public school because of a student’s race in the interest of achieving racial diversity is unconstitutional.” Okay, so now I know a little more about who has what rights, and how they got them. Does that really make any difference in how I run my business from one day to the next? Perhaps not, but I think that a sense of history and context does matter. The next time I get into a discussion about what’s wrong with education, I may not sound like someone who has had his had bashed against a locker.
You can e-mail Kevin at kfahy@fwpi.com. April 2019 — EducationalDealerMagazine.com 7
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It’s Right On the Way by Claire Sykes
M
Macon, a city smack dab in the center of Georgia, is served by three interstate highways: I-16, which connects to Savannah and the coast; I-75 from Atlanta to the north to Valdosta to the south; and little I-475, a 15-mile-long, six-lane bypass that takes travelers around the city on their way to and from Florida. For Ed and Diane Vogel, that short stretch of road has been a lifeline pumping teachers and parents into their store, GA School Supply. “You never know who’s going to walk in the door,” said Ed in a recent interview. He and Diane have owned the 51-year-old store for the past decade, and they’ve served all kinds of people. Here’s their story.
of a mile from Interstate 475. It’s the bypass for drivers from Atlanta, about 100 miles away, and also from farther north for people going to Florida. Atlanta is a movie-making hub, so we’ve helped prop people select schoolish items – posters, décor, and other
classroom staples – to trick out their sets. Did you ever see a program called “7 Little Johnstons”? It’s a reality show on the TLC network about a family that lives about 20 minutes north of us. When the associate producer wanted to video them shopping for school
Customers from daycare centers, parks & recreation departments, senior centers and nursing homes frequently shop the store during the hours that school is in session.
Educational Dealer: Tell us about your location. Ed: We have a corner lot on one of the main streets in Macon just three-quarters 8 EducationalDealerMagazine.com — April 2019
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Ed and Diane Vogel make sure shoppers can’t miss GA School Supply when they get off the interstate.
supplies, they came here. It was for the last episode of the fourth season, which aired last November. The camera crew and director roamed through the store with them. I made it onto national TV by pushing the cart full of purchases to their car! There are no teacher-supply stores within a 60-mile radius of us. Shoppers sometimes drive here from two to three hours away, and you never know who is going to walk through the door. Church groups come here to purchase supplies before they go on mission trips, and we once served a Secret Service agent for Jimmy Carter. The former U.S. president lives about an hour-and-a-half away in Plains, Georgia. He and his wife are involved with Habitat for Humanity, an organization that helps provide homes to people around the world. April 2019 — EducationalDealerMagazine.com 9
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What’s the store like? It’s a freestanding building in an industrial area. Next door is a tire store; behind us is an overhead-door-installation business. Harley Davidson is a block away and Capitol Cycle, another motorcycle dealer, is across the street. The building was constructed in 1981 and purchased then by the previous owners. Our showroom and office are about 4,000 square feet and our warehouse is 6,000. It’s great to have so much storage space. When we bought the business, the warehouse contained 90 shelf units with three to five shelves each. We’ve been able to purchase large quantities of product during supplier specials and free-freight deals, and we have a loading dock for pallet deliveries. How many employees do you have? Besides Diane and myself, we have two fulltime and three part-time employees. Three of them are current or former paraprofessional educators. During back-to-school, we add one or two more part-time people. What kinds of products do you carry? We carry classroom décor, teacher and parent resource books, arts & crafts supplies, manipulatives for early childhood education, and more. Our biggest categories are rolled paper for bulletin boards, construction paper, and resource books. Our current number-one bestseller is anything in the Confetti line from Teacher Created Resources.
The Vogels’ well-stocked classroom décor section offers posters and charts, accents and cutouts, borders and trimmers and much more.
In terms of furniture, we stock rest mats, cots and some activity tables, and we’ll special order other furniture, equipment and rugs, that can be dropshipped right to the customer. Diane really listens to what shoppers ask for, and if we don’t already carry those items, we try to order them. We bring in new lines often as suppliers create new products. We shop their catalogs and see their merchandise at We Connect. Our sales reps have always been helpful.
During the week (from left), Vickie Avera works the register and stocks product, Josephine Bouie tales care of accounts receivable and answers the phone, and Kathy Mullinax manages the warehouse. 10 EducationalDealerMagazine.com — April 2019
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Ed Dealer: What led you to buy the business? I was an accountant/controller and former CPA, but I was only working part-time in 2008-2009 due to the recession. Diane was a third-grade teacher for gifted students. I had talked with a banker friend about starting a propane company, but he encouraged us to look at the local school-supply store that was on the market. It was a natural fit given Diane’s background in education and mine in finance. Plus, “There will always be teachers,” we told ourselves. When we took it over in 2009, it was already 41 years old. The stock was limited and its computers and software were outdated. The system crashed three months later! So we got a new one and gradually increased our inventory with everything from arts & craft supplies and language arts books, to STEM products and teacher resources. Our customer base started to grow with the help of loyalty punch cards, coupons and sales. Diane kept teaching while she worked at the store, then retired in 2013 after more than 40 years in the public-school system. She was a substitute teacher up until last year, to keep abreast of current educational practices. Her knowledge of teachers’ needs remains a real plus. She also can offer ideas to parents looking to help their children learn. Diane places the orders with four of our top five suppliers and I handle the financial paperwork, among other store tasks. Together, we make a good team. Our business is stable; 2019 started out very strong for us – so far, walk-in traffic increased five percent over last year. That may be small, but we’ll take it! Who are your typical customers? Primary and elementary schoolteachers are here most often. Since teachers need to change the look of their classrooms for the next holiday April 2019 — EducationalDealerMagazine.com 11
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or season, we can see the same ones five to 15 times a year. During the school day, our customers are from daycare centers, parks & recreation departments, senior centers and nursing homes. After school, it’s parents and teachers. They tell us they appreciate our convenient location, the selection of products on display, and the individual attention we give them. About 95 percent of our sales are in-store; the rest is online and from our catalog, handled by Catalog Solutions. We do receive a lot of purchase orders from schools. Every back-to-school season, one particular primary school sends in four to five teachers with a PO. We also receive POs from state and federal institutions.
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How has your business changed in the last 10 years? We’ve added more than 30 4-foot shelves to display more items in our showroom. We’ve also added a reduced price/clearance room, and a room dedicated to religious material. Today, we consider Amazon a competitor, but only somewhat. Many of our customers won’t order from the internet because they want to see the product in person. Former competitors including Target, Toys “R” Us and Kmart have all closed in our community. We still have Walmart, but many of our customers tell us they don’t like the lack of help there, so they’ll come to us. Our biggest challenge is making it through the busy-ness of the backto-school shopping season. During the last week in July we have to open a third register because our lines are so long. The biggest reward is the ability to be our own boss, and we just love working together! We also enjoy seeing the results of our hard work.
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Go With the Flow
by Tina Manzer
F
From employee questions and shoppers’ chit-chat to the endless call of your inbox, sometimes you feel like you’ll drown in distractions. They constantly pull you out of your flow, that intense state of concentration you need to get your best work done. “Flow is the state of mind that occurs when all your conscious thought is focused on what you are doing,” says Julian Birkinshaw, coauthor with James Manktelow of Mind Tools for
Managers: 100 Ways to Be a Better Boss. “Unfortunately in the modern workplace, flow can be difficult to achieve and maintain. By weeding out typical distractions, though, managers can improve their focus, get more done, and become more effective.”
Flow and the Traditional To-Do List Scott Mautz recently discussed a productivity technique called timeboxing in his weekly column in Inc. The technique was at the top of a list of 100 tips compiled by productivity expert Marc Zao-Sanders, CEO of filtered.com. The list resulted from a thorough search of online productivity articles scrubbed for the 100 most-frequently-cited tips, which were then ranked from 1 to 100 based on raw usefulness and ease of implementation. Timeboxing re-imagines the to-do list by putting it in chunks of time, Mautz explains. “So, assign a fixed period of time to a to-do item, schedule it, and stick to it. Voilà,” he wrote, noting that typical to-do lists include way too many items, are not well prioritized, and enable us to practice the worst of our anti-productivity habits. We all tend to do the easiest tasks first, for
example, even though they are often not the most important. Here’s what Mautz learned when he tried it. 1. “It takes discipline to start, but it pays off in the end in increased productivity.” The issue is thinking through in advance how long each task will take and selecting which tasks are the most important. “Then you have to be brutal about working that task to completion within the time allotment you gave it,” notes Mautz. “In the beginning, I stunk at estimating ‘time for completion.’” It worked, though, because he got better at time-estimating, and the whole process made him organized, premeditated, and disciplined. 2. “I gained a more targeted, earned sense of accomplishment.” Mautz found that not only do the
“right” things get done, but the idea of time in a box made him single task versus multitask. “You feel stress in trying to accomplish that task within the time you allotted for it, but it’s productive stress, unlike the stress of staring at an ever-growing to-do list and wondering if you’ll ever complete it.” 3. He ended up building his own version that works well for him. “I still like the visual, stacked, to-do list, so I still use it” Mautz concludes, “but I timebox the most important items on that to-do list, and denote on the list with a little square that the item has been timeboxed on my calendar. That way, in the space in between timeboxed events, I can still achieve a sense of accomplishment by completing and crossing off a few of the more mindless, less urgent tasks on the to-do list.”
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Here are the eight most common distractions and how you can eliminate them. The relentless presence of personal technology Smartphones and (more recently) smartwatches have blurred the line between personal and professional communication. You can receive work emails and calls on the same device as private Facebook comments, Instagram photos, and an array of other personal information. When focusing on a particular piece of work, choose to put away your phone for a certain amount of time. That way you can devote your attention entirely to the project at hand. It sounds simple, but self-management is not as easy as you think. Wikki_EdDealer_Sally_Best_PRNT.pdf
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Email, email, and more email Many emails in your inbox may not be particularly important, and yet you feel you must look at them when they arrive. Instead, try these tactics. 1. Schedule checking times. Turn off the alert that appears on your computer screen when you receive an email and, instead, check and respond to messages at set times. This helps you manage your coworkers’ and customers’ expectations about how and when you will reply to them. 2. Use “low-productivity” times. There are likely certain times of the day when you do your best work, like first thing in the morning or maybe late at night. Schedule email check-ins for your less-productive times and save your peak hours for high-value work. Turn emails into actions.
3:06 PM
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If you need more than a few minutes to read an email, add it to your to-do list. Social media and web browsing Both are major productivity killers. Try using a brief personal browsing session as a reward for an hour or two of high-quality and focused work. Nerve-jangling phone calls The ring of a phone often prompts an intense need to answer, even when you’re in deep concentration. To minimize this source of distraction, arrange a rotation system so that everyone on your team can take turns answering for one another. Other noise distractions Rather than trying to ignore loud colleagues, the barking dog next door, or the lawnmower outside your window, wear noise-canceling headphones or play white noise to block out the sounds that would otherwise interrupt your flow. An overwhelming workload Try to have a manageable to-do list. One that’s too long can lead to procrastination as you wonder which task to tackle next. Each day, commit to accomplishing the two most important tasks on your list and put the rest on hold until tomorrow. “In our study we found that 79.5 percent of managers view prioritizing tasks effectively as one of the most important planning and time management skills,” says Manktelow. “It is so important!”
Visitors Colleagues visiting your desk can be a big source of distraction, but as the owner or manager of a business, you need to be available for your employees. So, if you don’t want to be disturbed when you need to focus on a task, consider working at home. If you have an office, close the door and tell your team that you need to be left alone to concentrate temporarily. Shortfalls in your own well-being It takes a lot of mental and physical energy to juggle your priorities, manage people, and have the discipline to control your use of technology. Make sure you are getting plenty of sleep and drinking enough water. Dehydration can make you feel tired and impact your thinking. It’s also important to get some fresh air. Take a brisk walk during your workday; it will energize you. Try to avoid heavy lunches and sugar-laden snacks that can lead to a slump in your concentration later in the day. “It’s easier than ever to lose track of what you should be doing at work, but you can still take steps to avoid distractions and improve flow,” concludes Birkinshaw. “Learning to better manage these ‘flow breakers’ is a valuable skill that can be practiced and sharpened over time. When you can achieve flow more easily, you will not only become a better manager, you will also set a great example for your team.”
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Mission Focused by Tina Manzer
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In 2003, Mark Hubbard was an investment advisor in Dallas who wanted to be a business owner. Ever the strategic planner and researcher, Mark picked the brain of every company executive he knew before he changed careers. One of them was Bob Driscoll of Paragon Furniture. Bob had bought the school furniture manufacturing company from its founder who started out making computer tables, and had owned Paragon for seven years. He and Mark met together for about a year. During that time, Mark introduced his business partner Ricky Kassanoff to Driscoll, and together they hammered out a deal to purchase Paragon. Mark said, “I’ve known Ricky since 1978 when I was 8 and he was 9. I met him in elementary school in Midland, Texas. We’ve been friends all this time, and had a shared vision for the kind of business we wanted to own.” Like Mark, Ricky lived in Dallas. In 2003 he was raising a family and working as a strategic planning and management consultant to Fortune 500 companies. The two bought Paragon in 2004. Today, they manage a team of about 55 employees. “We are passionate about improving educational experiences,” says Mark. “It makes our work more mission-focused than jobfocused, and that’s pretty important. Our customers know that we feel that way; it’s what separates our brand from so many
At we INSPIRE young minds by sharing our passion for learning, health, and careers in medicine.
others out there. They hear it and see it in everything we do.” Recently, we caught up with Mark who shared some insight into the school furniture market as a whole, and his business specifically. Here’s what we found out. Ed Dealer: What does the school furniture market look like right now? Mark Hubbard: Our own data shows that it has grown quite a bit. According to the experts, the compound annual growth rate projection is 3.5 to 5.5 percent over the next several years. Compared to other industries, it’s a moderate growth forecast, but there is a steady and meaningful projection ahead for us.
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Why the growth? The consumers of our products, ultimately students and teachers, have different expectations today of how classrooms should perform and the role of furniture in them. Consumers are applying pressure. “We need furniture that’s more flexible; more comfortable,” they say. They also want furniture that’s more durable because they’re moving it around more. But there’s something else going on here. People crave novelty. All humans do. Teachers and students don’t want highly prescriptive classrooms with muted colors and furniture that’s all the same size and shape. It goes against what we all need and expect in order to stay interested and engaged. What does Paragon do to meet the new expectations? We were one of the first educational furniture manufacturers to think about the classroom as never being neutral, that it’s a space that can inform, and that it can add or detract from the larger experience. Our idea was to use furniture to goose performance. By giving students and teachers an environment that engages them both physically and cognitively, we could “prime the pump” to get them to learn and engage with each other. It is an exciting challenge. It has made our business way more interesting, and our mission and progress clearer. Our Koi desk, designed for collaboration, is a good example. It is shaped a bit like fish. It was the first of its kind five or six years ago, but there are a lot of copies now in the marketplace, which is a good indicator of success. When you bought the company, was your goal to innovate? It was not. We thought we could keep doing what Paragon had been doing to be successful, just more of it. But it occurred to us a few years into it that being innovative was the key. At one point we looked at each other and said, “We have really good ideas. Let’s see if we can develop products that reflect our own unique style.” It meant that we had to pivot, and spend time, money and resources to develop ideas that were going to grow our business. There was sort of a product-development convulsion here between 2009 and 2013. Virtually everything that moves for us today from a volume perspective was developed within the last six to seven years. Our bestsellers are classroom furnishings, especially our Emoji Chair. Our highest volume sales are of that chair and the multiple-shaped desks in our A&D classroom furniture series. Are they manufactured here in the U.S.? We use a mixed model. Probably half of our furniture’s parts and pieces are imported from either domestic or overseas (continued on page 35)
50 P Cap lant acit y!
OPCOMFARM GROWBOX TABLETOP GARDEN PERFECT FOR STEM ACTIVITIES OPCOMFARM GrowBox deep water hydroponic system supports tall or vine plants over 3 feet. Includes height and angle adjustable LED grow lights. Energy efficient control box for management of lights and water cycles. Includes Basic Starter Kit. Supported by STEM Book. Distributed by FullCircle26, Inc.,
opcomfarm.com opcomfarm-orders@fullcircle26inc.com April 2019 — EducationalDealerMagazine.com 17
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by Tina Manzer
P
Jim Seymour from E-Blox, accepts the Buyers’ Choice Award from Ed Dealer’s Darlene Ryan (left) and ECRM’s Catherine Wilcher.
Power Blox from E-Blox and the Playtivity Sensory Discs from Primary Concepts were the Buyers’ Choice Award winners at ECRM’s educational event in February. The program in which buyers were asked to vote on their favorite products was presented in partnership with Educational Dealer. Buyers of products for parents, teachers and schools loved Power Blox’s ability to bring the things kids build to life. Using patented technology, tin-plated blocks connect to a battery block that connects to power electrical component blocks. Kids age 8 and up can add motors, speakers, amplifiers, Bluetooth connectivity, and sound effects – just to name a few – to whatever they build. There are no wires! Because children discover as they play, the block sets (which are compatible with other plastic brick toys) are a perfect addition to a STEM curriculum. They cover all the skills, including the A for art and R for reading/writing in STREAM, says the company website, myeblox.com E-Blox was launched three years ago by Art Seymour and his sons James and Joseph. Combined, the three of them have more than 90 years of experience as entrepreneurs, inventors and designers in the educational toys and wireless industries. Art was one of the two electrical engineers who founded Elenco (for Electronics Engineering Corporation) in 1972, famous for its award-winning Snap Circuits kits. Today, the Seymour family develops toys designed to stimulate imagination and creativity, and helps children investigate their world through interactive storytelling, creative reasoning, and the systematic building of objects. Sensory Discs provide captivating and soothing tactile experiences for early learners, people with special needs, and fidgety students who need to touch, squeeze, explore and observe. There are five different 5-inch-diameter discs in the line. • Scaly Stuff discs have a magnetic backing and feature flip-flopping iridescent sequins that change color with light refraction. • The Squishy Stuff clear disc pouches are filled with water and colorful, shimmering, nontoxic gel beads. • The nontoxic substance in Squeezy Stuff discs keep kids squeezing!
Jim Whitney and Kevin Casey from Primary Concepts receive their award from Catherine Wilcher.
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offer ease of use for teachers and effective outcomes for all young children.
• Fuzzy Stuff discs have shag noodles that are soft and soothing. • The Hidden Stuff clear disc pouch is filled with colorful beads, including all the letters of the alphabet. They appear and disappear as the disc is manipulated. Primary Concepts’ products focus on the essentials of the preschool and primary curriculum. The company was founded more than 30 years ago by two early-childhood specialeducation teachers who came up with fun activities to teach their students, many of whom were severely disabled. Teachers everywhere clamored for the materials, even at schools for the gifted and for the learning delayed. Today, Primary Concepts creates developmentally appropriate learning materials that
The Educational Supply Efficient Program Planning Sessions (EPPS) from ECRM (“Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing Program”) give buyers the chance to meet face-toface with manufacturers and experience their products. The not-a-tradeshow tradeshow runs on prescheduled appointments; each appointment is 10 or 20 minutes long and takes place in different meeting spaces. This year’s event, February 10 through 13, was held at the Chateau Elan Winery & Resort in Braselton, Georgia. “Our process is pretty unique, and it’s quite a bit different from the traditional tradeshow or expo where suppliers pay for booth space and then have to pay for all the add-ons,” explained Tyler Barich, vice president of channel development-grocery, on the ECRM blog. For ECRM, suppliers can choose from among three different types of meeting packages that include hotel accommodations and meals for one person. “They’re not paying for a meeting space, they’re paying for the opportunity to have appointments with buyers and all the rest of the services we deliver around those appointments to make them a success,” he added. The 2020 Educational Supplies EPPS is scheduled for Sunday, February 9 through Wednesday, February 12.
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The D t C nnect r by Tina Manzer
Y
You may not recognize Jim Koplow here without his dice. When you see him at trade shows, he’s surrounded by them – in all shapes, sizes and colors. The founder of 45-year-old Koplow Games, “the nice dice company,” may have even handed you samples there; tiny dice in jewel-toned shades. You’d remember it. That’s the point. “I enjoy seeing my customers and sharing ideas,” Jim told us. Since 1974, he and his dice have traveled to 650 trade shows, including two years with 22 shows each. He’s always been big on talking to people and showing them products. When he first started out, he walked around Boston’s Harvard Square on Saturdays wearing a sandwich board. On one side was an ad for a game he developed called Organized Crime. On the other side was the name of a local store, The Games People Play. “My company was started by a vagabond who wasn’t interested in daily work, but who thought collecting royalties for a game may be okay,” Jim explains. He and the owner of the store, the late, great Carol Monica, became fast friends. “Jim Koplow, the ‘dice man,’ walked into my store a week after I
opened in 1974, touting his new game,” she said, in a 2005 interview with Knucklebones magazine. “We started talking, and then I told Jim about the special dice required for Dungeons & Dragons, and helped get him into the business.” One year, Jim brought her a copy of the British game 1829 from Germany’s Essen Game Fair. She liked it so much that she decided to attend the annual event herself. In 1995, she came home with Settlers of Catan, in German, and became the first retailer in the U.S. to sell it. In addition to his impact on the world of games, Jim has also brought innovation and fun to the classroom. Our industry has been selling Jim’s many styles of dice for years
to creative teachers who make learning a game. To find out more about this colorful character, we asked him to answer some thought-provoking questions.
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Ed Dealer: You’ve been given an elephant. You can’t give it away or sell it. What would you do with that elephant? Jim Koplow: • Go for a ride • Work on miniaturization • Start selling compost • Promote poems and records about “six blind men and an elephant” What have you created that you’re most proud of? Organized Crime, and some very unusual dice. What games are you currently playing? Which ones are in your permanent collection? Life, gin, casino games and Sudoku. I probably have 10 or more random games around, sent to me by? And 1,000 random dice collected over the years. What do you do when you’re not working? • A day at the beach • Time in the garden • Slow-paced travel • A Mexican Boilermaker • An easy hike • Down time
Make Phonics Fun with Unif ix® Reading! These kits include Unifix® Letter Cubes along with new comprehensive activity books and card sets. #211277
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Among your friends or family, what are you famous for? Hanging out and showing up in time for dinner. What personality traits do you value most (a), and (b) which ones do you most dislike? a. Honesty, compassion and humor b. Selfishness and cruelty What were you like in high school? I attended and was quiet. Had some good times and still have a few close friends from those days. What challenging thing are you working on these days? Getting up, transitioning to life online, and developing fresh new ideas for a 5,000-year-old product line. What’s the best and worst piece of advice you’ve ever received? Get a job, don’t go into business for yourself, don’t ever get a job, be healthy and happy. You can apply best and worst. If life is a game, like some people say, what are some of the rules? Don’t rush the end game, enjoy each turn, playing is always more important than winning.
1.800.828.9587 @romanoffproducts www.romanoffproducts.com
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Cool Hot innovations in the furniture and equipment category
ChildBrite’s Square Mite/Sensory Table lets children explore the wonders of light while playing with manipulatives. Includes four EZ-roll 2-inch casters for easy mobility that can be locked for stability. It’s sturdy and made with colorful, molded, certified nontoxic resins for indoor/outdoor use. 800-252-0276, childbrite.com
Kore Kids Wobble Chairs hold up to 275 pounds. The anti-tip ring on the base prevents falls. They are manufactured with a patent pending, FDA-approved antimicrobial to reduce common bacteria. Students can’t wipe or scrape it off. Available in five sizes from 10 inches to 18.7 inches high, and in multiple colors. Made in the USA, limited lifetime warranty. 516-662-0108, info@korestool.com
The Time Timer PLUS line contains four durations. The 20 Minute and the 5 Minute PLUS make a perfect pair, customers tell us. Younger kids use them to see the patented colored disk disappear, making time concrete. Older kids and adults use the durations together to increase focus and decrease distractions. They’re great tools for activities and transitions. timetimer.com
The rocking plane, train and racecars from Children’s Factory have a high-density foam core covered in wipe-clean, eco-friendly polyurethane. The bright, appealing hues help toddlers discover various colors while improving balance and coordination. They’re lightweight and easy to move, and the cantilevered base helps with stability. For kids age 12 months to 3 years childrensfactory.com
Students stay comfortable and focused with lightweight and curved seating options. They’re available in several different shapes designed to work together. Students can easily arrange them to support group projects or study groups. Choices include a variety of colorful, soft chairs and ottomans that add more flexibility to learning spaces. 770-246-6442 jaxxbeanbags.com
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The Safco Runtz Ball Chair is designed to help children stay active, and to support better posture and balance in the classroom. Choose between easy-to-clean vinyl or fabric seat options. Four powder-coated legs provide stability and stationary glides provide stability. 888-971-6225, safcoproducts.com info@safcoproducts.com
Romanoff’s new sleek and sturdy caddy features six small, colorful and removable storage cups to tote around small items. Remove the cups at a work station for shared play and then pop them back into the caddy for easy cleanup. Available in two sizes! 1-800-828-9587 romanoffproducts.com
The dual-usage Plant and Reading Light Tabletop unit, distributed by FullCircle 26, adds beauty and a bio air refresher. It features an auto-mode control for growth and reading with the 30-degree rotating light. The unit accommodates standard flower pots up to 4 inches and comes with a starter kit with seeded sponges. opcomfarm.com, opcomfarmorders@fullcircle26inc.com
The door-free construction of Jonti-Craft’s Four-Piece Kitchen Set means maximum safety for little ones. The adapted 20-inch counter height allows curious toddlers to enjoy kitchen play, while features like the four “burner” stove, wooden turn-button controls, and button display make for realistic play. 800-543-4149, sales@jonti-craft.com, jonti-craft.com
Make learning fun and focused with Datexx’s brand new TimeCube Plus timers. They’re still the easiest timers, but with new and improved features. Just turn it to the preset time needed, and then turn it back when time is up. It’s that simple. Just turn and learn! sales@datexx.com, datexx.com
The Kore Office PLUS SitStand Desk Adjustable Chair is the ultimate teacher’s seating choice! It adjusts from 21.5 to 32 inches for desk, standing table, or perching. The gently rounded base allows you to move and flex while you sit to increase comfort and productivity, and to exercise core muscles. Black leather-like or fabric seat, limited lifetime warranty. 516-662-0108 info@korestool.com
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New True Short and simple alphabet activities from Creative Teaching Press can yield BIG results for beginning readers! The interactive activities featured in Cut & Paste ABCs help with crucial early literacy skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, letter recognition, letter formation/printing, small motor development and vocabulary development. 800-287 8879 creativeteaching.com
ARcards from PBS Publishing use augmented reality to make learning more fun. The flashcards come to life to enhance learning by downloading the free app. The images are augmented with video and audio clips that will keep children engaged while learning letter recognition, pronunciation, vocabulary, and fun facts. Tina Singleton: 800-441-3676 tsingleton@pbs-publishing.com
The award-winning Circuit Blox 120 kit from E-Blox provides hours of educational play for kids age 8 and up. The colorful building blocks have electronic components in them that, when assembled properly, will make circuits that light different lights, create entertaining sounds, and spin a motor and fan. You can even build an FM radio! Jim Seymour: 855-693-2569 sales@myeblox.com
Sandastik’s mini starter set of eight handy-sandy bottles of primary-colored sand add texture and depth to sculptures, craft boards, 3-D modeling, art activities and more! They’re packaged in a clear PET plastic pop-up-cap bottle. Kid safe. 905-734-7340, info @sandtastik.com Introducing Mixed Emojis from United States Playing Cards. The express-yourself game of feelings helps kids recognize and express emotions. It’s simple to set up, easy to learn and can be played in 15 minutes or less. For 2 to 4 players, ages 6 to 8 carrie.devillez@newellco.com
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Jacquard’s Pretreated Cyanotype Fabrics make sunprinting easy. Simply lay objects on the fabric surface (leaves, lace, tools, toys, etc.), or make full-body prints using the Mural Fabric. Expose to sunlight and rinse in water. Capture the nuance of every shadow using the power of the sun! A great group activity. jacquardproducts.com
My 1st Career Gear Toddler Police Top from Aeromax is an easy-on shirt printed with all the things an officer needs: a badge, arm patches and sergeant stripes. It’s all in the details. It fits kids ages 18-36 months. info@aeromaxtoys.com, aeromaxtoys.com
Stop summer learning loss! Schools know it’s never too early to think about summer so Newmark Learning created takehome summer reading sets to help stop the summer slide: May NL5445, June NL5446, July NL5447, August NL5436. Each set for grades PreK-3 includes 36 books; 3 copies of 12 titles. 877-279-8388, newmarkneworders@ newmarklearning.com
To reinforce key concepts, teachers and parents love the Linear Graphs Algebra Card Game from Didax. The interactive game features 12 sets of matching cards. Each set includes six cards showing multiple representations of the same equation (coordinate pairs, slope, graph and more). Instructions offer a variety of easy-to-play games. For grades 8-12 and up to 4 players 800-433-4329 orders@didaxdealer.com
The laminated MORE Sight Word Songs Flip Chart from Scholastic teaches the second 50 sight words from the Fry List! Use a dry-erase marker on the 15 by 20-1/2-inch poster to highlight learning. Includes a complete teaching routine and a link to download 25 tunes that feature kids’ favorite topics – dogs, hippos, ghosts, even Big Foot.
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New True Smart Start STEM from EvanMoor engages children in fun, hands-on challenges and activities that develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Each unit includes stories and practice pages that help them understand science concepts and provide a foundation for completing each STEM challenge. Kids think creatively and explore different ideas to solve problems. PreK-1st grade Hilda Pohl, 1-800-777-4489 x130
Eureka is excited to introduce a new line of colorful Language Arts Bulletin Board Sets that help provide a visual reference for the classroom. In addition to literary genres pictured here, topics covered include punctuation, reading strategies, parts of speech, and figurative language. 1-866-394-5047, eurekaschool.com, or contact your sales rep
Make perfect replicas of almost any object with the new Quick-Casting Kit from ACTĂ?VA! Create a mold with the InstaMold molding compound (included), and then cast with the PermaStone plaster (also included). Create school projects, fine art, keepsakes and more! Non-toxic and gluten free 1-800-883-3899, activaproducts.com
On cold winter days, the Wikki Stix Fun Activity Book makes playtime a warm fuzzy experience! Screenfree, hands-on fun will entertain little ones for hours. More than 30 activities and 72 Wikki Stix. Fine motor skill and learning activities that little ones will enjoy! wikkistix.com
As sensory-based learning becomes mainstream and a hot category, sales of the Sensory Sand Trays from Primary Concepts have dramatically increased! Available SKUs include PC2011 Letter Formation Sand Tray, PC3003 Word Formation Sand Tray, and PC4006 Jumbo Sand Tray 800-660-8646, primaryconceptsdealer.com
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Welcomes Four New Advertisers! E-Blox, an emerging leader in educational electronic toys and products, is based in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. With its plug-together bricks and modules, kids can build dozens of toys and games that light up and make sounds. Its Power Blox building kit received a Buyers’ Choice Award at ECRM in February. See the ad on page 15 and the article on page 18. FullCircle26 Inc. is a full-service factory representative organization in the education, art & craft, commercial and hardware channels. Founded in 2017, the company is based in Round Lake, Illinois. Its current partners include Armadillo Art & Craft, Adesso, Boogie Boards (Kent Displays), Dixon Ticonderoga Company, OPCOMLINK USA and Bob Ross Inc. See the ad on page 17 The kits from Little Medical School help students ages 4 to 14 look like healthcare professionals and use real tools like doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and veterinarians use. Activities in its pediatrician, veterinarian, and sports medicine kits were designed by educators to mimic what real healthcare professionals do. See the ad on page 16 The United States Playing Card Company has led the world in the design and manufacture of quality playing cards since 1881. Today, they can be found in casinos, the tabletop game market, and in classrooms. Check out its two educational games under the Hoyle brand: Mixed Emojis and Seal Team. See the ad on page 5 April 2019 — EducationalDealerMagazine.com 27
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®
EYE ON EDUCATION
Made in USA
Class Record Books Lesson Plan Books Teacher “5-N-1” Book School Nurse P.R.N. School Counselor P.R.N. Student Assignment Book
Game and Book Lists Foster Social Emotional Learning In remembrance of the anniversary of the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, New York Citybased Literary Safari Media has released #ArmMeWithGames, a list of 20 awardwinning games that help build empathy and social sensitivity. At a time when video games are blamed for violence and even mass school shootings, the #ArmMeWithGames list invites parents and educators to take a more nuanced view of the role of games in the lives of young people. The list features letters to parents and teachers from Joel Levin, technology educator and founder of MinecraftEdu, and Dr. Karen Schrier, author of Knowledge Games: How Playing Games Can Solve Problems, Create Insight, and Make Change, along with game recommendations from leading game designers, researchers, and educators. One of the games is an awardwinning, first-person-narrative game, Among the Sleep, for high-schoolers. It’s played from the perspective of a 2-yearold child experiencing parental neglect, and helps to assess how an environment of alcohol abuse and domestic unrest can affect a young child. Never Alone, for middle schoolers and older, is an adventure game based on Iñupiat (Alaskan native) traditions and characters. The multiplayer game follows the journey of a young girl,
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Nuna, and her fox as they try to restore balance to nature and uncover the source of the dangerous blizzards that threaten her village. The game is based on themes of togetherness, interconnectedness, respect for all things, and cooperation – essential components of social emotional skill building. ZooU, a single-player game about choice, was designed by psychologists and therapists for elementary school and classroom use. It features a teacher interface. The gameplay invites kids to navigate social situations in a familiar setting that correlates to their own reallife experiences at school. Faced with solving social problems, players are reminded to consider the perspectives of all parties in question, the goal being to build social-emotional skills such as compassion, friendship, and confidence through adaptive game play. The #ArmMeWithGames list is a companion resource to Literary Safari’s #ArmMeWithBooks, a list of book recommendations by award-winning children’s authors, released last December. In creating these resources, Literary Safari was inspired by the viral teacher-driven #ArmMeWith social media campaign that emerged in response to politicians’ suggestion that teachers be armed with guns to prevent further school shootings. For more information, visit literarysafari.com.
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The Snowy Day Legacy: Celebrating Cultural Diversity in Children’s Literature
John Sullivan is the 2019 Ezra Jack Keats Writer award winner for Kitten and the Night Watchman. Oge Mora is the Illustrator award winner for Thank you, Omu! They each receive $3,000 and a bronze medallion. Keats’ book The Snowy Day, published in 1962, broke the color barrier in children’s publishing. Each year, the foundation presents awards to an outstanding writer and an outstanding illustrator, early in their careers, for having created an extraordinary children’s book that reflects the diverse nature of our culture. Kitten and the Night Watchman, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo, is perfect for children whose parents work at night and who wonder what goes on when they’re asleep. The story gently weaves the work a night watchman does with the poetry of a sleeping construction site, the warmth of a new kitten and pleasure of going home at sunrise to a loving family. Like Keats, Mora illustrated Thank you, Omu! using bright collage. It is a playful story that shows us, in the form
of a stew that’s shared, how kind human connections can form intimate support groups amid any kind of city bustle. “Keats understood that diversity isn’t an ideal, diversity is our world,” Mora says. “For my grandmother, cooking was about bringing people together. My books are my way of honoring that love and sharing it with the world.” Thank You, Omu! is also a 2019 Caldecott Honor Book, and winner of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award. Here are The 2019 Ezra Jack Keats Award Honor winners for writing. • Juana Martinez-Neal, for Alma and How She Got Her Name • Matt James for The Funeral • Keith Calabrese for Lena’s Shoes are Nervous The following illustrators were Honor winners. • Jessica Love, for Julián is a Mermaid • Jane McGuinness, for Prickly Hedgehogs!
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EYE ON EDUCATION
Students in Rural U.S. Need Better Connectivity To access technology, high school students in rural parts of the U.S. face significant challenges that can adversely affect their learning. The story is a very different one for students in more populated parts of the country, according to surveys of those who took the national ACT test. “Nearly one in five students in U.S. public elementary and secondary schools live in a rural area,” says Jim Larimore, chief officer for ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning. “We need to do a better job of closing equity gaps to ensure that we’re providing all students with the opportunity to be successful.” The majority of rural students in nearly half the states are from low-income families, he adds, and they generally earn lower scores on standardized high school assessments, attend college at lower rates than do students from non-rural areas, and, as highlighted in the report, have less access to rigorous coursework. In fact, rural students may have a greater need for technology compared to their non-rural peers to access
courses not offered at their school, including participation in online dual enrollment courses, and to increase opportunities for personalized learning. In addition, lack of access may make homework, like conducting research or writing, more difficult. ACT believes that access to technology, such as broadband and devices, will improve these circumstances, and offers policy solutions in its report, “Rural Students: Technology, Coursework and Extracurricular Activities.”
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INDUSTRY NEWS Jan Rogers created the Time Timer 25 years ago to solve a universal problem. She was a mom with a need: her youngest daughter struggled to grasp the concept of time. It made transitions and timeliness difficult. Cues like “five more minutes” didn’t help. Her daughter became frustrated about her inability to grasp the concept of time. The Time Timer began in the Rogers’ garage based on a concept Jan sketched on a legal pad. It was an innovative but simple tool that “showed” the passage of time using a red disk. Since the first Time Timer for her daughter was produced, more than 2 million others have helped people of all ages conquer time management. They can be found in classrooms, homes, therapy centers, restaurants, boardrooms, and factories around the world. Thanks to its visual nature, the disc helps transcend cultural and language barriers and is sold in more than 80 countries. It is a globally recognized time management resource that helps people of all ages, abilities, and cultures “make every moment count.” As Time Timer’s influence grew, so did the business. CEO Dave Rogers now manages the daily operations and long-term vision for Time Timer. Through his leadership and corporate experience, Time Timer has expanded into the business market, partnering
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with bestselling author Jake Knapp and his book Sprint: Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. “My mom didn’t anticipate the far-reaching influence of the first Time Timers she assembled each night after my sisters and I went to bed,” Dave recalls. “In my mind, she is a softspoken hero; a true game changer.” Today, the tool is helping other inventors and entrepreneurs like Jan develop their own game-changing ideas. It is also a powerful tool in the classroom. Teachers use it to transform stressful transition periods, reduce resistance to routines and increase their ability to manage their classrooms. Teacher’s Choice Awards and Able
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Creative Teaching Press has made donating excess inventory a tradition for the past 30 years. The practice not only spreads goodwill, but also makes fiscal sense because it takes advantage of a little-known tax break. It’s better for the bottom line than other options, including discounting or liquidating merchandise. Under IRC Section 170(e)(3), C Corps can take a deduction for products they donate to qualified nonprofits. The allowed deduction is equal to the cost of the inventory donated plus half the difference between the cost and fair market-selling price, not to exceed twice the cost. For example, if a product costs $10 and it sells at retail for $30, the difference is $20. Half of $20 is $10. So, $10 (Product Cost) + $10 (Half the Difference) = $20 Deduction. Twenty dollars does not exceed twice the product cost, so it is does not exceed the maximum allowable deduction.
Jim Connelly
CTP has donated everything from stickers, bookmarks, stationery and student rewards to workbooks, lesson planners, accessories, charts and classroom décor. Donations have also come from its affiliated companies: The Learning Works and Rejoice! “It actually strengthens our brand,”
says Jim Connelly, Creative Teaching Press president. “We are able to put our materials into the hands of more people, spread goodwill and get customers more excited about buying our new products.” Creative Teaching Press works with a gifts-in-kind organization, NAEIR, to streamline its donation process. Gifts-in-kind organizations act as gobetweens for companies and nonprofits in need by vetting schools and charities and getting donated products to them. Creative Teaching Press contacts NAEIR when it has inventory to donate. Once the donation is approved, CTP ships the items to the NAEIR’s warehouse and receives tax documentation in turn. Gifts-in-kind organizations accept just about any new merchandise, from office equipment to art supplies. Companies may donate a small box or several truckloads of items at a time, and there are no restrictions on how often donations can be made. Creative Teaching Press sent multiple trucks full of product when it decided to move its warehouse from California to Kentucky. Donating unused products before the move helped CTP reduce moving costs. To take advantage of the donations, a school pays a small annual fee to a gifts-in-kind organization. In turn, the school can browse through the group’s catalog of available products and choose whatever they want. The only additional fees they pay are for handling and processing. Schools can use the items within the school or give them away to students and families in need. The schools must follow IRS guidelines, which state that the merchandise must go to care for the ill, needy or minors. Schools may not barter, trade or sell the donated items. For more information, contact Gary C. Smith, president of the National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources, 800-562-0955 or visit naeir.org.
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Kore Design recently received two awards from the Canadian Office Products Association: the 2018 Product Development Award of Excellence and the 2018 People’s Choice Award for Best New Office Product. The COPA Awards Program recognizes companies and individuals involved in the manufacturing, resale, and distribution of office products within Canada. Honors are bestowed for successful product development, marketing ingenuity, corporate responsibility and leadership excellence. The awards, the first that Kore Design has received outside of the U.S., demonstrate the company’s growth in the worldwide marketplace.
The ABC Spring Conference & Trade Show for the juvenile products industry will be held April 30 to May 2 in Reno, Nevada. The annual event features an expo with exhibitor booths to help independent retailers gain hands-on knowledge of the products they sell. Educational sessions provide information about the industry issues that affect them. During the Modern Parent Panel
Discussion, for instance, attendees will learn about the purchasing behavior of Millennials in order to better market to this key demographic. Then, a group panel discussion between retailers and exhibitors will cover issues important to both groups with the goal of coming up with reasonable solutions. For more information, visit allbabyandchildsec.com.
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INDUSTRY NEWS
The college admissions scandal is a wake-up call, writes Ted Dintersmith, author of a new book, What School Could Be. “It’s shouting, ‘We’ve completely lost our way in how we raise and educate our children.’” In his opinion, the scandal reflects our country’s college-ready obsession – one that damages kids the most. “We’ve let our college acceptance feeding frenzy define the lives of our K-12 children:
what they study, what skills they develop, and how they view their worth,” he wrote recently in the Washington Post. “It threatens to impair their future.” “Apart from the occasional career technical education school or career academy, K-12 kids have no time to develop proficiencies of interest to them and prospective employers,” he continued. “They leave high school with just two options – more years of costly
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formal instruction or a lousy-minimumwage job.” The charges against the 50 or so people are being described as just the tip of the iceberg, he noted, so his article took readers below the surface to uncover some facts and insights. The “purchased” admissions spots affect a tiny percentage of students. “Across highly selective colleges, a few thousand admissions spots go undeservedly to the rich each year. But for context, some 4 million teenagers leave our K-12 schools annually,” he wrote. Getting to college is not a defining force in many other parts of the world. Ted pointed to Finland, known for its outstanding education system, where college is just one path high-school graduates can take. Other paths take them to the workforce, military service, community service or “adventurous exploration.” Using rough figures, Ted listed what’s happening to teenagers educated in the U.S. • 20 percent never finish high school. • 20 percent end their education when they graduate from high school, but don’t have the skills to get a decent-paying job. • 20 percent head to college but drop out, “almost always with debt and grim job prospects.” • 20 percent graduate from college but end up in a low-paying job. • 20 percent graduate and get a job associated with their college degree. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” he concluded, and described the collegeadmission universe presented in What School Could Be. “It highlights nascent initiatives seeking to align high school transcripts and college admission with what matters in life, not empty numbers. They all underscore that the transformation we need in college admission is what gets valued more than who gets in. He hopes that the scandal will give us the courage and vision to re-imagine what and how our schools teach kids.
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Mission Focused (continued from page 17)
The hole patterns on Emoji Chairs provide the right aeration for the age group using them.
Creative Teaching Press®
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1 suppliers. All of our plastic parts, for instance – chair shells, edge banding for the sides of tabletops – are brought in from other suppliers. The other half, a lot of steel and wood parts, are manufactured here. Manufacturing takes place in three different locations: two here in Arlington, Texas, and a third near Knoxville, Tennessee, where we produce our soft-seating items. We’re in the educational market only, so we’re pretty narrowly focused. Growth opportunities exist for us if we were more vertically distributed; going into the higher-education market, for example. But that market is served by a different group of distributors than the ones we work with currently in K-12. Who are your distributors in this market? Right now, we depend heavily on dealers, the ones who are focused more on an entire project’s-worth of furniture, and less on individual pieces of furniture sold transaction by transaction. By extension then, the salesperson for the dealer is the salesperson for Paragon. Our own salespeople are out there, too, calling on dealers, architects, designers and end users to generate interest in our products. But at the end of the day, the dealer’s salesperson is the one selling our furniture to the end user.
Is that the way most furniture manufacturers sell their products? It’s pretty common in the K-12 market, even though it is a fairly complicated distributive model. At Paragon it’s complicated further because we’re “open line” rather than exclusive to select dealers. We’ve toyed with the idea of offering exclusivity to some of our dealers, but when we looked at other manufacturers who use that model, we discovered their sales tended to stagnate. We also saw that the open-line competitors of ours tended to have longer growth cycles. It may take us longer to grow our businesses, but we’re patient enough to wait for a higher return. The downside of an open model is that multiple dealers may be selling the same product to the same customer at the same time. Sometimes we’re aware of it, sometimes we’re not. Our dealers won’t necessarily call us to get pricing. They know what their costs will be for our products, so they draw up a quote and pitch it to the end user. Meanwhile, another dealer pitching the same end user has called us to see if special pricing is available. We sometimes have to sort things out with our dealers and negotiate with them to figure out who gets best pricing and who gets best lead times. The difficulty is in acting in a tie-breaking role with those dealers who are trying to serve the same customers.
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Paragon’s Motiv soft seating is manufactured in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Our “teacher-store” readers, the ones who sell mostly classroom resources and curriculum materials in their stores, may read this and say, “Maybe I should be selling Paragon furniture.” One of our biggest opportunities is to figure out how to tap into the schoolsupply-retail distribution model. I really want to explore how to take our products on a more direct basis to teachers, administrators and principals. Furniture is a few clicks away from the end user; supplies and curriculum materials that are used every day are closer. I think it would be a great opportunity to figure out how to develop a dialog with end users. Possibly one way to do that is through the retail-supply model. Distributing our products more broadly poses two challenges. Using a
larger number of resellers creates more competition for our existing dealers, which doesn’t help build alignment and reciprocity; and there are high costs associated with getting our product noticed and distributed by a larger group of dealers. Who are Paragon’s competitors? Most are suppliers focused on K-12, but there are increasingly more competitors coming into the space that are not necessarily traditional to the K-12 market. For example, a brand like IKEA is pervasive, and appeals to teachers who may have a limited budget. Many of our distributors have also moved deeper into the supply chain by offering proprietary furnishings as an alternative to Paragon. The line is blurring between what is an educational furniture manufacturer versus any other kind of manufacturer.
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A&D Crossfit Motion Desks are height adjustable and mobile.
Yes, especially with social media sites showing classroom hacks using furniture designed for the home. That’s a great point. Teachers spend a lot of time on Pinterest and Instagram, so we started actively pushing out ideas through those channels. We started using both platforms actively a few months ago to increase awareness and engagement with end users. I’m not sure we’ve had
time to collect enough data to tell us how effective we are, but there are positive growth indicators such as the number of impressions, number of followers and the reposting rate of our content. What do you want Educational Dealer readers to know about Paragon furniture? That we have the ability to design, build and deliver furniture solutions
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