MS 54 Booker T Washington Middle School

Noise Reduction a Success in the MS54 Cafeteria
The MS54 grant committee is pleased to announce that we have completed our Lowe's Toolbox for Education grant project and successfully reduced the noise level in our cafeteria. Everyone is thrilled with the result.

Starting two years ago after MS54 changed the lunchtime policy, all students had to eat in the cafeteria instead of going out in the neighborhood to buy lunch. With hundreds of kids using the cafeteria at a time and no sound absorbant surfaces, the concrete cafeteria was echoey and deafening. Dr. Elster literally felt herself going deaf.

Fortunately, Lowe's Toolbox for Education offered a solution. A parent committee researched noise absorbing foam panels that could be mounted to the concrete ceiling. The most difficult part was getting permission from School Facilities, a process that took several months. The panels were finally installed in mid November 2008.

The deafening cafeteria environment was a hardship that each of our 950 students and much of the faculty had to endure every day, yet one that everyone kind of took for granted. After the acoustic panels were installed, the results were dramatic. Instead of echoing so loudly you have to shout to be heard, voices now sound like, well, voices. The first day after installation, Dr. Elster could hardly wait for lunch period to be over so she could tell everyone how well the new noise absorbing panels work! The panels are nearly invisible, but they make a really noticeable difference in the level of noise in the cafeteria.

For more information about the Lowe's Toolbox grant, please see http://www.toolboxforeducation.com/.