Reuse & Recycle: Fort Worth Independent School District
Overview
In 2017, voters in the Fort Worth, Texas Independent School District approved a $750 million capital improvement program, with the goal to enhance learning environments in the district’s twelve high schools. These projects have added or expanded Career and Technical Education spaces, science classrooms, libraries, and collaboration spaces, and have eliminated the district’s reliance on several dozen portable classrooms.
Meteor won the opportunity to design and provide furnish- ings for a majority of the upgrades undertaken in this initiative. Meteor’s assignment has been closely tied to renovations and
new construction undertaken in many of the schools. It’s been a complex project with many moving parts, extending (to date) over four years, with many disruptions of COVID-19 thrown into the middle.
Based on its decade-long partnership with The Reuse Network, Meteor proposed disposition of the old furnishings as part of its service package. Considering the financial, environmental, social, and operational benefits, the district concurred that reuse was the best option for handling the furnishings to be disposed of.
Project Scope
District-wide modernization of 12 high schools, replacing some or all furnishings, along with clearing out furniture from several dozen portable classrooms.
Items Reused
Nearly 16,000 pieces — including classroom, administrative, library, science, and other furnishings — have been placed for reuse in multiple phases across 14 schools.
Scale & Impact
IRN has completed 20 reuse projects for this district, providing 43 tractor-trailers of furniture to communities in need.
By the Numbers
| Furniture Type | Number of Pieces |
|---|---|
| Student Desk | 5,892 |
| Student Chair | 6,397 |
| Stool | 425 |
| File Cabinet | 211 |
| Table | 1,832 |
| Professional Desk | 272 |
| Adult Chair | 521 |
| Other | 248 |
| Total | 15,798 |
Destinations
Fort Worth furnishings have been provided to nine different nonprofit organizations, which in turn have distributed them into communities in thirteen countries and the state of Texas.
| School | Number of Pieces | Trailers | Destination |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amon Carter High School | 916 | 3 | Mexico, Texas |
| Arlington Heights High School | 1,143 | 3 | Haiti, Jamaica |
| Benbrook High School | 395 | 1 | Guatemala |
| Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School | 271 | 1 | Haiti |
| Dunbar High School | 842 | 2 | Malawai |
| Eastern Hills High School | 3,217 | 9 | Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Jamaica, Zambia |
| Logan Elementary | 927 | 1 | International (Unspecified) |
| Mitchell Elementary | 750 | 1 | Lebanon |
| North Side High School | 1,046 | 3 | Jamaica |
| O.D. Wyatt High School | 312 | 1 | Haiti |
| Paschal High School | 2,021 | 6 | Haiti, Mexico |
| Southwest High School | 324 | 1 | Nicaragua |
| Trimble Technical High School | 1,822 | 5 | Haiti, Kenya, Turkey |
| Western Hills High Schools | 1,812 | 6 | Guatemala, Nicaragua, Philippines, Senegal |
| Total | 15,798 | 43 |
Dunbar High School
Destination: Lilongwe, Malawi
Paschal High School
Destination: Port au Prince, Haiti
Eastern Hills High School
Destination: Lusaka, Zambia