As Jr. Eli Bartels sat down, a crack rang across the classroom. Bartels crashed to the floor and  the class jolted in surprise at the sudden clamor. While sitting down, Bartels snapped his chair and scraped his back while falling to the hard tile.

  When the new chairs were announced for the 2022-2023 school year at West Ottawa High School South building, nobody showed much excitement or thought the old ones needed replacements. 

  The new chairs at the South feature spinning seats, wheels, and adjustable heights. The desks have hard tops that are great for writing along with wheels which allow teachers to easily rearrange the classroom. Jr. Will Niziolek said, “In my opinion I don’t find the new chairs to be much better than the old ones. They are nice because they are easier to move around however they are very small compared to the others. It feels like I have to slouch more in order to have some support for my back.” Other than students’ opinions on the discomfort with the low seat backs, most students found the new desks and chairs to be a nice addition they didn’t know they needed.

   North building features a variety of seating arrangements, but the most common desks are rectangular with a laminate top. The desks are known for peeling, which makes handwritten assignments an unnecessary headache that could be fixed with a replacement. While the replacement of the desks at South was appreciated, the replacement of the desks at North seems more necessary. 

  Two main types of chairs show up in the classrooms at the North which include a softer, bendier plastic chair and a stiff plastic chair which often cracks like what happened to Bartels. Jr. Cayden Brummels said the stiff plastic chairs, “Help me focus and do my school work to my best ability, while the chairs at South are distracting with the lever because I keep messing with it.” Sometimes the simpler, the better when in a learning environment.

  The South building has the best desks. They have a better workspace, especially for paper worksheets. The title of the best chairs isn’t as straightforward and has more to do with preference. Some people find the comfort ability of the chairs in the North more important, while others prefer the mobility of the chairs in the South.