Learning Environment Action Plan (LEAP)
A practical, 5-phase approach for turning your vision into an ideal learning environment.
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A practical, 5-phase approach for turning your vision into an ideal learning environment.
Whether you’re updating outdated furniture, adapting to new technologies, or creating an entirely new environment, you want to be sure the decisions you make not only meet your current challenges but also provide a learning environment that will serve your school well into the future.
This exclusive process was developed and practiced with many educators. It has helped them solve unique, and commonly experienced, learning environment challenges.
Our depth of experience and expertise means we’re ready to support you from beginning to end, with expert planning tools and the latest thinking in student-centered learning environments.
We invite you take a closer look at how LEAP can help guide your decision-making and make the process simpler and more rewarding.
Identify and define your needs
Like building the foundation for a house, the planning and preparation you do in this phase will support the rest of process. Together, we’ll gather and review pertinent information so you can determine which factors need to be considered and which goals are most critical in achieving success. We help many different schools nationwide, and we draw on that experience to meet your project’s unique needs.
We have former educators on staff who have first-hand understanding of the concerns, needs, aspirations, and limitations that educators face every day. We draw upon those insights as we begin a conversation to understand all the factors that spurred your need. This is also an opportunity to understand if there is an impact on long range strategic plans.
There are many questions to answer to ensure a successfully completed project. We work with you to understand your goals and objectives, consider the needs and concerns of fellow stakeholders, determine priorities, assess the realities of the space, and discuss how furniture can enhance teaching styles. We also work to help you identify potential obstacles and roadblocks, so you can minimize them—or avoid them altogether.
Then we can expand the conversation to include internal experts who have experience designing and implementing environments that support learning. We’ll help you identify individuals in your organization who can help shape criteria and identify key factors.
Bring focus to the entire process
In this phase you’ll evaluate a range of possible solutions that could meet your goals and objectives. You’ll incorporate the new information gathered in Phase 1 that has the potential to change the outcome or the solution.
We’ll help you consider a range of factors so you can accurately assess the products that best align with your budgetary and pedagogical goals. These factors include teachers, students, other stakeholders, physical building, IT infrastructure, learning and teaching practices, and more.
This step is crucial to verify that you have funding available for the solutions that are being proposed. This may include available funds, financing options, and considering the benefits of a buying cooperative.
You’ll want to consider product options that meet your goals and objectives, keeping in mind factors such as the availability of stocked items versus timing for a custom-manufactured solution. Once you’re comfortable with a solution, you’ll have the necessary information to create an RFP, if needed. After completing this step, you will have: prepared layouts (if needed), selected products, and confirmed funding
Refine choices to define your best solution
We’ll help you to build on the work that you did in the last phase, using your specifications to narrow choices and suppliers, achieve stakeholder consensus, and determine the best solution for meeting your goals while minimizing potential risks. You’re nearly finished with your part!
We are on over 350 contracts, including a national purchasing contract, which allows you the best pricing available. We’ll help you to decide not only which products are best for your objectives, but also which vendors will work best for the project.
At this stage you’ll want to circle back with stakeholders to ensure that the solution you envision can be endorsed by everyone involved.
Ultimately, the LEAP process will help you to decide on the most effective option—the one that provides the greatest value for your school district. It will also help you to select a partner with whom you will feel comfortable. When you complete this step, you will have developed a solution, created a finalized proposal, and obtained a purchase order for the project.
Keep the important details in mind
Your work is nearly done! To minimize potential glitches in this critical stage, it’s essential to prepare a detailed plan for implementing your solution. School Outfitters provides an integrated approach that considers every logistical aspect of your order, including delivery and assembly.
School Outfitters has extensive experience with complex purchasing processes. We can help you save time and cut through the paperwork maze by retaining proper documentation during the installation process.
We assume responsibility for ensuring that your new furniture is delivered, assembled and installed correctly and on schedule. With large or complex projects, issues are virtually inevitable, but a single call to your School Outfitters representative is all that’s needed to have the problem quickly and courteously solved. During this step, we will work with your supplier to plan for the delivery and installation of your new learning environment, and determine a plan for staff training with the new furniture.
Get the most from your classroom solution
This phase is critical to ensuring that your furniture is performing as anticipated, and that the supplier met all of your expectations. It is also an ideal time to consider ways to enhance your solution to make it even better or to consider other factors to maximize the effective life of your new learning environment.
After purchase, we stay in touch to ensure that your solution did indeed fit your needs and is working as you anticipated—or to understand any problems that may arise.
Every project includes the opportunity to tell us how the supplier did. We continually seek ways to improve every aspect of our business, and this feedback is essential to build on our track record of success.
We provide guidance on how to best care for your furniture to maximize your investment in your new learning environment. We administer the warranties on all products, on your behalf eliminating your warranty hassles. In addition, we inventory commonly-requested replacement parts for our exclusive brands, so they can be shipped within 24 hours.
