Boston Public Schools - Testimonial

Boston Public Schools — Charlestown High School

Resurfacing Showerboard with Think Board

Think Board has been resurfacing classroom whiteboards at Charlestown High School, part of Boston Public Schools, since 2017 — replacing failing layers of melamine showerboard with a durable dry-erase surface applied directly over the original chalkboards.

Project Details

The Problem

Built in 1845, Charlestown High School has a total of 99 classrooms, serving 920 students throughout Boston Public Schools. While the school has different additions built throughout different decades, one thing remains true throughout the school. Every classroom has layers and layers of melamine showerboard covering up old chalkboards. When Charlestown HS first approached us in 2017, they told us they had been buying showerboard at Home Depot every 6 months to keep the whiteboards clean.

The Action

In 2017, Christophe, the Assistant Headmaster, asked us to resurface a 4'x8' board in the classroom with the heaviest whiteboard use. After being impressed by the results 6 months later, Christophe decided to allocate a fixed amount per year to Think Board retrofitting. We now resurface 18-20 classrooms per year.

The Response

“The teachers work so hard for these students — every single day. They deserve to have functioning whiteboards. You wouldn't believe it, but upgrading their whiteboards to Think Board brought some of them to tears. It shows them we're listening. It shows them we care.”

— Christophe Teulet-Cote, Assistant Headmaster, Charlestown High School, Boston Public Schools

We quickly learned that it was better to remove the 3-5 layers of melamine showerboard and install the Think Boards over the original chalkboard surface. This is particularly helpful with Charlestown's sliding chalkboard systems, as they can only be raised up 1/4 inch before it interferes with the sliding system. Think Board brightens up the classroom and brings the school into the 21st century. Showerboard works in a pinch, but any sort of melamine-based whiteboard product will not stand the test of time.

The only other alternative for Charlestown High School would have been to awkwardly mount heavy duty porcelain whiteboards overtop of the existing layers, but even then, it would not have looked as nice. Also, with the budget Charlestown allocated annually for their whiteboards, they would have only been able to convert 6-8 classrooms per year due to the extra costs and labor.

Resurfaced Think Board whiteboard installed over an original chalkboard in a Charlestown High School classroom

Year after year, Charlestown High School keeps coming back — a few more classrooms every budget cycle, and teachers who finally have whiteboards that work.

Learn More

Read the full case study (PDF)

Learn more about whiteboard & chalkboard resurfacing, or request a school quote.