Repairing Slate Chalkboards From Lisa Dunker, a fifth grade teacher at Greenwood Elementary in Seattle, Washington: "I work in an old building that has slate chalkboards. They're very beat up and it's difficult to read from them. To solve the problem, I purchased sheets of shower surround from the hardware store and screwed the sheets into the frame of my current board. The hardware store has been great about trimming a couple of inches off of the board at no charge. They seem to last for a couple of years and then I simply unscrew and replace them. By using Grabber brand screws, I've been able to use the original holes repeatedly."