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Calabasas, Agoura schools to get theaters
Measure G provides funding for two arts centers
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More from EducationFor more than eight years, drama teacher Bill Garrett has seen the performing arts program at Calabasas High School flourish.
The more than 30-year-old multipurpose room that has doubled as the school's theater, however, has left Garrett and his students longing for a new facility.
Budget constraints in the 1970s, coupled with the passage of property tax-cutting Proposition 13, limited state funding for school facilities projects, said Don Zimring, superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District.
One casualty was Calabasas High's multipurpose room, which was suppose to have "raked," or stadium seating, like a professional theater.
"The stage is nice, but the house leaves a lot to be desired," Garrett said. "At our winter concert, it was standing room only. We could have used a couple of hundred more seats. That's how it is all the time."
Within the next two to three years, however, students at Calabasas and Agoura High schools will have new venues for their theatrical productions, now that plans are under way to construct performing arts centers at both campuses.
Community members also will have the opportunity to use the new centers, Zimring said.
Funding for the estimated $25 million project was made possible through Measure G, which Las Virgenes voters approved last year. Measure G earmarked about $128 million for construction projects, technological improvements in classrooms and teacher training.
The Las Virgenes school board this month hired Los Angeles architectural firm John Sergio Fisher & Associates Inc. to design the two buildings, Zimring said. The architects will meet with each school's faculty and staff to gather input on the designs, he said.
Zimring said it's been a long time coming. "What we have now are multi-useless' rooms," he said. "They have flat floors and big halls ... they are not theaters. Both schools have extraordinary arts and drama departments. We have really high-caliber programs that have to suffer in low-caliber facilities."
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