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Caroline Elementary teacher says pandemic-stored furniture was disposed; district pledges investigation

Ithaca City School District Combined Facilities & Finance Committee Work Session · August 20, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Nancy Braun, a kindergarten teacher at Caroline Elementary, told the committee that classroom tables stored during the pandemic were later disposed of without clear notice, and asked why the district paid storage costs if furniture was unusable. The assistant superintendent of operations said he would investigate and follow up.

Nancy Braun, a kindergarten teacher at Caroline Elementary, told the Facilities and Finance committee she discovered kindergarten-sized tables she expected to reclaim had been disposed of after years in storage. Braun said she and her colleagues had searched storage trailers and that, after arranging replacements, she was later informed the stored furnishings had been discarded and she asked the district why the furniture was stored at cost for four years if it was unusable.

Dan Bridal, assistant superintendent of operations, acknowledged the concern and said he would investigate what happened and report back to Braun. "I'm happy to investigate what happened there and work with Nancy to figure out what happened," Bridal said. He noted that a lot of furniture had been moved into trailers during COVID to meet distancing requirements and apologized that Braun had to buy items herself.

Board members said the board reviews a monthly surplus property report intended to flag reusable items and prevent inappropriate disposal, and they committed to follow up. The committee did not take formal action but requested staff to investigate and provide a report to the teacher and to the committee.

Why it matters: Teachers said the disposal affected classroom readiness and raised questions about surplus-property management and communication with staff who planned to reuse district property.

Provenance: Public comment on furniture disposal began at 00:21:32; assistant superintendent response at 00:31:06.

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