The new Performing Arts Center at San Lorenzo Valley High School celebrated its grand opening last weekend.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 21 marked the official opening of the new complex, which will serve students of the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District and community members.
“There’s not enough space (before) and we have to go to other places to sing and stuff and now that we have (a theater) here, other people from other counties can come and watch us sing — I think its going to be really fun,” said seventh grader Daniel Gomez, a student at SLV Middle School.
Equipped with state-of-the-art sound and lighting technology, this 11,000 square-foot theater complex took nearly two years to build at an estimated cost of $5.25 million, said SLVUSD Superintendent Dr. Laurie Bruton. It seats 213 and has walls that are 24 inches thick.
“We are honored to have had the opportunity to build this for our school, our kids, and our community,” she said.
The theater was made possible by Measure O, a $18.9 million bond measure approved in 2008 that authorized SLVUSD to construction, improve, and acquire facilities.
“We finished the library, and as you recall we had a big recession a few years ago, so construction costs actually went down,” said SLVUSD Board President George Wylie. “We budgeted money for the library and it turned out that they didn’t use all that money and we had money left over.”
Instead of remodeling the previous complex, some of the money from the library was used to construct an entirely new building in the same footprint.
“People that work here got their heads together and said ‘I wonder if we can use the extra money from the library and maybe use it to rebuild the PAC instead of just modernizing it,’” Wylie said.
Construction of the Performing Arts Center reached completion about two weeks ago, just in time for SLVHS students to perform “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
“Opening night is March 5 and they have been practicing and rehearsing since the beginning of December,” Bruton said, “so they are ready and anxious to get started with our opening night.:
SLV Middle and High school bands and choirs performed following the ribbon-cutting ceremony. There was also a benefit concert later that night with all proceeds going toward the kindergarten through 12th grade performing arts program, as well as to support the new Performing Arts Center.
“Every student from kindergarten to 12 grade will have the ability to utilize the theater,” Bruton said.
Assemblymember Mark Stone presented a commemorative award to San Lorenzo Valley High School for the grand opening of the new center.
“It really goes to show what a community can do: Going from the tragedy of the library fire, coming together, focusing on the resources that are needed that the students here deserve, and putting together an absolutely incredible slate of projects that will be hallmarks of education in the San Lorenzo Valley for generations,” said Stone of the theater.
