LDHS, a school built in 1972, has faced problems like water leaks, an aging HVAC system and broken floor tiles. Now, in 2025, some of those facilities problems persist, and students are also faced with outdated signage that does not help them to navigate the school.
For freshmen brand new to this school, one thing has always been a problem, and that is that the signs posted around the campus which are supposed to help people find their ways around are outdated. The R-Pod signage, for example, says “Social Studies and Foreign Language,” a reference to Spanish classes having been taught in two R-Pod classrooms in the past and to S-101, which was the French classroom from the 1970s until 2005. As it sits now, S-101 hosts journalism and Dual Enrollment English classes, far from a foreign language. Also, LDHS only offers Spanish, and those classes are scattered throughout the school.
“When it came to the pods, I just felt like I was completely lost,” junior Lisa Henry said. “First of all, I barely even saw any signs, and the ones that I did see still confused me, like the sign near the Lecture Theatre and the bathrooms that has multiple locations on it and no arrows.”
Another issue is that we still have the signs from when the A and Y Buildings were just portables. A placard near the teacher workroom points people to the “Modular Classrooms” that no longer exist behind Commons.
Outdated signage that does not reflect the current buildings’ layout or the kinds of classes and offices located throughout the campus today create confusion.
“On the first day, navigating was difficult. As time went on, it’s gotten better,” freshman O’Miya Bussey said.
Old yearbooks and videos of the inside of the school reveal that there used to be many murals and art installations that helped newcomers navigate our halls. Unfortunately, most of the murals which were created as projects in the ’80s and ’90s by former art teacher Barbara Brinson’s students have been removed and have not been replaced. Without the artwork on the walls, students can easily get turned around, especially in the pods.
On top of the signage issue and the uniformity of the pods, we also have multiple broken water fountains around our school.
“L-Building has the best water fountains, the main building has horrible water, and most fountains in Commons or around the pods are broken,” junior Sanai Simpson said.
The fountains in the Atrium are fully functional aside from some broken buttons, but between the pods, Commons, A-, Y- and Tech Buildings most are broken, partially working or moldy.
All these issues beg the question: Will what’s broken and outdated be fixed? Maybe the art classes could replace the murals that once helped to differentiate the pods from one another. Making new signs would be a project that could showcase the skills of LDHS’s graphic design students. We have CATE classes on campus like building construction and welding that could take on repairs.
One of the reasons that LDHS may be in disrepair, in addition to the building’s being over 50 years old, is that the school no longer has an on-site employee dedicated to maintenance. The District 55 Maintenance Department makes repairs here, but the workers are responsible for maintenance at 10 schools in District 55, some of which are older than the high school.
LDHS, however, is in a unique position to take care of some of its own maintenance. Building construction teacher Joseph Adams says his upper-level students could take on some projects that do not have to be completed by someone licensed in commercial construction.
“My hope is that one day my level four students could actually be the LDHS maintenance crew,” he said.
Adams and his students already make repairs on campus. They have worked on the pole barn, dugouts at both the baseball and softball fields, the softball locker room and a ramp at the tennis courts. Adams says that coaches come to him with construction budgets, ask him if he can work within those budgets and then provide him with money to buy materials. He sees other opportunities to improve the campus.
“The courtyard between the I-Pod and the L-Building has a stone wall that needs repair,” Adams said.”That would be a great masonry project for my students, who are doing a masonry unit right now.”
In addition to building construction, LDHS has other classes like welding, art or digital art that could give students real-world experiences by challenging them to make repairs and aesthetic improvements to the school. New art installations would not only add character to the building and provide points of student pride, they would help students, teachers and visitors to find their way around the school.
School and District administrators could ask those classes to help and could provide funding for the projects by spending money that is already allocated for maintenance. This opportunity would be a wonderful way for our skilled students to apply their knowledge in a real-world setting.
