Opinion: Beware the walls of DeAtley Center

Mind-numbing. That’s the word many, if not most, use to describe the acoustics of walls of the DeAtley Center at LHS. Ever since the foundation of the DeAtley Career and Technical Center in 2019, there has always been one screaming discrepancy: the $1.2 million spent to build it was not enough to fortify the walls against the noise.

Terri Varnado and Chad Crosby shared about this challenge as teachers.

“The walls just amplify the sounds,” Varnado said. “You can hear students washing their hands, and the walls on the top aren’t even filled, so sometimes fumes get into our classroom.”

Varnado teaches Technological Design, Engineering Design and Robotic Applications.

“Overall I believe that these walls need to get fixed, and soon because it’s creating a major distraction for Pre-Engineering,” Varnado said.

Crosby addressed his struggles with noise control, too, in the Auto Tech shop.

“These walls make a major issue. You can see at the top of the walls that there’s an entire segment of the wall that’s not filled,” Crosby said. “It just goes straight through, so I try to keep my room closed while I teach.”

Both complained that they could hear noise from each other’s shops and classrooms. But they agreed the problem is due to the walls, not the other person.

Ironically, the addressed problems are the fault of no one except the makers, the engineers, and the skilled workers who didn’t foresee the issues with these walls between Auto Tech and Pre-Engineering.

This is a major issue that must be addressed in these coming years or this year. The building needs improved structural integrity. We need the top of walls of the DeAtley Center to be filled. Noise and fumes can leak through, and that can be highly distracting, if not worse. The walls need to be fixed for a better experience for both the teachers and the students — especially in the walls between Auto Tech and Pre-Engineering.