Meeting Highlights: Dec. 14

The SJUSD district is creating a Memorandum of Understanding that will outline the performing arts center project and the responsibilities of ecARTS and the district. When the MOU is signed, we can begin the approval process for creating a “help us build our theater” mural for the west side of the band room wall (facing Eastern at the corner of El Camino Avenue and Eastern).

Design/Construction Committee:  Williams & Paddon Architects/Planners prepared a questionnaire/evaluation form for former clients for whom they have built performing arts centers soliciting feedback on their satisfaction with the building.

Communications Committee:  We voted on our new logo design and motto (see above). Many thanks to all of the students, alumni and parents who submitted designs.

Next Meeting: January 13, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.

All are welcome!

Meeting Highlights: November 9

• Volunteers are busy researching the best way for our group to incorporate so we can collect funds as a tax-exempt entity. Stay tuned. We are making progress!
• Our event committee plans to throw a grand kick-off party in the next year or so. Plans are under way to choose a date and plan this gala event. We would appreciate any contacts you may have in the event-planning and fundraising world.
• Communicating our mission to the rest of the community is an important aspect of our group. In addition to this website, you can now find us on Twitter (@PerformAtEC). Soon, our student representatives will announce our Facebook page. Additional communication plans include painting a mural on the west side of the band room (facing Eastern) announcing a future PAC on the El Camino campus (pending district approval).
• We are meeting with architects and hope to have conceptual drawings in the not-too-distant future.
• Our Design/Construction Committee met with an architect who will send survey of 25-30 questions to other schools whose PACs they designed for input on likes/dislikes of design.

 Next Meeting: Monday, December 14 at 7:00 pm in the El Camino Band Room

All are welcome!

Logo Contest Sparks Creativity

The deadline for submitting entries in our logo contest has passed. Twenty entries were received by current students, alumni and EC performing arts parents. The selection process is currently in progress and a winner will be announced in the next 30 days. Thank you to all of the participants for submitting such terrific designs for us to consider.

PAC Logo Contest

All artists are invited to enter the Performing Arts Center logo contest, print the attached rules and regulations form and send it with your art work.

Contest Rules and Regulations:
1. All entries must be submitted to Kevin Glaser, on or before October 30, 2009.
2. Two entries accepted per person.
3. Contest open to current ECFHS students and ECFHS alumni.
4. Logo should reflect the various performing and visual arts at El Camino High School, including band, drama, choir, and visual arts.
5. The logo will become the symbol of PAC at EC. By submitting art work to the contest you certify the following statement "I certify that I am the author of the material I am submitting to PAC at El Camino". PAC at El Camino may reproduce, distribute, publish, display, edit, modify, create derivative works and otherwise use the material for any purpose in any form and on any media. Winning design becomes the property of PAC at EC.
6. Logo must have "Performing Arts Center at El Camino" or "PAC at EC" in the design.
7. No copyrighted or trademarked images should be included in submissions.
8. Logo must be usable in monochrome media (single color).
9. Logo must be submitted in EPS, PDF or JPEG format with a resolution of 1200 dpi .
10. Logo must be usable as letterhead or be able to be incorporated into permanent signage as part of the building structure.
11. Winning logo will be selected by the PAC EC Board of Directors.

Include your name; address; phone; email address; and whether you are a student or an alumnus.

Proposed Plan

1. Construct a Performing Arts Center with a large stage, theater seating, lighting capability, sound system, dressing rooms, storage and a modern stagecraft construction area. The lobby of the PAC would be used as an art gallery to showcase student projects. The parent committee has made field trips to Woodcreek, Folsom, Hiram Johnson and Mira Loma high schools to consider different approaches to the building design and better understand what would make an excellent visual and performing arts center facility. A 500- to 600-seat theater is required to meet the expected audience size for a facility that will draw patrons from the local community as well as the student body.
2. Working with architects, the “footprint” of the facility will fit, more or less, where the tennis courts are currently located and will include the facility and some additional parking. Building the VPAC on the current tennis court site allows it to be close to the main school campus buildings. The VPAC would be used daily for classes and rehearsals and, therefore, needs to be within five minutes' walking distance for faculty and students moving from class to class.
3. Design and build a new tennis court facility to replace the “Butler Building” and its parking lot, just south of the current tennis courts. The design could include restrooms and a snack bar to make the south west corner of the campus user-friendly.

Two factors must be considered when looking at a timeline for this project: first, the cost of such a facility will be large. The parent group has estimated the final cost may top $10 million. Ways to reduce cost are being looked into, but the expense will undoubtedly be higher than what the district may be able to invest in a PAC. Fundraising projects need to be organized and calendared. Second, because of the infrastructure of building codes and governmental construction management, the process—once approved at the site and district levels—will take time. As the parent group has understood, this is a project that is going to take several years to complete.


To accomplish this project, we need several things:

• We need your enthusiasm to be enduring;
• We need your patience as we work our way through the maze of approvals still necessary to get this project to its next stages;
• We need people to share the vision and the dream with others, including those who want to be a part of such an endeavor;
• We need you to understand that, most likely, no student currently at El Camino will be using the Performing Arts Center while still a high school student. Your children may not be a part of this, when it begins. But we ask that you get involved anyway, because something worth doing is worth sharing with those who can benefit when the work is done and the dust has cleared.

“El Camino High School has been standing since 1950,” said Mr. Stockdale. “When it began, no one dreamed of things like Computer-Assisted Drafting, Advanced Placement classes, AVID, the Eagle Polytechnic Institute or KYDS Radio. Water Polo, Soccer, Volleyball and women’s sports were not yet in sight. And the term “Fundamental” had not been applied to any school anywhere. Yet the efforts of individuals, working together through the years, have created these everyday things that we—students, parents, teachers—enjoy every day at El Camino. Think how we can leave another legacy to those coming quickly behind us even now, by establishing a Visual & Performing Arts Center at El Camino Fundamental High School. Come join in!”

Inadequate Facilities

Each school year approximately 860 students (50% of the student body) enroll in the visual and performing arts. For those of you familiar with the course offerings , the productions, the concerts, and the art shows, it comes as no surprise that our students are producing high-quality work, but that our facilities are lacking in every respect.

• The performing arts classes currently schedule over 90 music concerts and theatrical productions per year with as many as 400 audience members in attendance at one time;Currently, the cafeteria (which seats 150 comfortably) is the ONLY on-campus performance venue;
• Due to lack of classrooms space, the visual arts department has been forced to give up the school art gallery, leaving them without space to display student work.

According to our principal, Michael Stockdale, “With an enrollment near 1700 and programs in multiple levels across a variety of subject areas, El Camino can no longer host everything it does with a cafeteria and two gyms.”

• The gyms are used daily throughout the year, including summer. Basketball, Volleyball, Wrestling, Cheer and Dance all use the gyms, in both boys and girls sports and in Freshman, Junior Varsity and Varsity levels. PE classes and conditioning sessions take place before and after school, and the facilities are used throughout the summer for more athletic opportunities. Occasionally, a gym is available for a meeting or a performance, but those dates are becoming rarer each school year.
• The cafeteria hosts Cheer and Dance practice, school theatrical performances, vocal music concerts, athletic awards events, academic awards events, meetings, testing, dances, dinners, forums and study sessions. There is very little room to add any event, no matter how important it may be.
• The library is used for a multitude of meetings, testing sessions, study sessions and more.

According to Mr. Stockdale, “You may notice the absence of band concerts and art shows in this list; that is because the facility is no longer large enough to host a band concert or flexible enough in the calendar to allow for art events or other types of performances. As I have said, El Camino needs a facility to support the events the school conducts.”


In an informal discussion with a district administrator acting with the approval of the School Board, Mr. Stockdale was asked what he would request if El Camino received one million dollars. “I chose a Visual & Performing Arts Center,” said Stockdale. Please note, that while Mr. Stockdale was told his request was “doable,” the board has not yet committed or earmarked any money toward a PAC.


“During the same informal discussion,” continued Mr. Stockdale, “it was explained to me that a bond measure is being developed to help support SJUSD; it is also very ‘doable’ to add a piece within the measure that earmarks funds toward the construction of a VPAC at El Camino. Two things though: the bond measure will appear sometime in the future, but it is currently being held up as the timing of a bond measure is as important as its content and purpose. Also, the addition of a performing arts center for EC within the bond has only been a casual agreement and is not formally on the discussion floor yet. That comes later as the measure gets closer to being a reality.”