By AMANDA STEWART
Hundreds of blue, orange, green and yellow plastic desks with attached chairs dotted the lawn outside Manassas Park Middle School Friday morning.


It was moving day.

The middle school is under construction now and the new building will open in October with all new furniture, principal Elizabeth Purcell said.

So, on Friday the school system sent all of the old furniture on a journey half-way across the country, to three Mississippi school districts in desperate need of furniture.

“Finding a home for old furniture is not always easy,” Purcell said. “The teachers and students and everyone here is just grateful that the furniture will go to someone who can benefit from it.”

More than 1,100 desks, chairs, book shelves, file cabinets and tables from Manassas Park Middle School will go to schools in the North Bolivar and Holmes County school districts and Laurel Alternative School in Mississippi.

Some of the schools were damaged by last year’s hurricanes, and others just lack the funding to replace their aging furniture.

“Having more tables and bookcases would be an asset to us,” said Howard Sanders, North Bolivar School District’s conservator. “We’ll be able to replace a lot of our furniture that is old and out of date.”

North Bolivar will divide the 462 pieces of furniture they get from Manassas Park among their three schools, Sanders said.

The district’s school buildings were all built between 50 and 80 years ago, and the buildings and their furniture are showing signs of age, he said.

“We haven’t done a major furniture purchase in a long time. We’ve been trying to hold on to the old furniture as long as we can, and repair what we can. This will help us so we can replace the old furniture and free up some funds to do other things,” Sanders said.

The value of the donated furniture, if purchased new, is about $91,000, Purcell said.

Manassas Park Middle School’s new furniture will arrive at the school on Monday.