After 18 months of construction, Hall County School officials cut the ribbon Monday on West Hall High School's new nearly 30,000-square-foot fine arts center.
The nearly $18 million facility will house the school's band, chorus, drama and visual arts programs.
Principal Ley Hathcock said the facility features many upgrades including more theatre seating, an improved audiovisual system and five new classrooms.
"If you look at just the theater portion, the old theater held a little less than 100,” Hathcock said. “It was designed for 110. We had some broken seats. The theater was built in 1987, and this theater holds a little over 400.”
Hathcock said West Hall plans to use the facility for class meetings as it can now hold a whole class of students.
Along with the expanded space, the facility also features technological improvements.
“We were still using the huge relay-based old transformer lightboxes. Now, it is 128 channels of wireless digital audio” Hathcock said.
Hathcock said the new band room is larger and features storage to fit all the band equipment, along with enough space for the band to practice inside.
West Hall Middle School students will also use the fine arts center.
“The middle school doesn't have a theater. But they have a lot of kids that are interested in that,” Hathcock said. “Our band director goes up almost daily during the first period and works with middle schoolers. Not just middle school band and chorus though, middle school theater is going to be able to use this and ultimately we look forward to having this as a community center, not just a theater.”
Hathcock said the previous space of the fine arts programs has been turned into an audiovisual laboratory and a work-based learning laboratory where students develop real-world skills.
