El Camino High School's Visual and Performing Arts Center

Friday, October 17, 2014

Performing Arts Center needs $5 million more. Vote carefully for new SJUSD board members.

On Monday, October 13 the El Camino community (including feeder schools) hosted several San Juan Unified School District representatives, two incumbent board members, and a few board candidates to discuss possible Measure N signature projects.

The meeting opened with over 150 students from EC, Deterding, and Arcade playing the Hey song. Students revised the customary chant lyrics, and El Camino’s Screaming Eagle together with the students and the audience sent District personnel an unequivocal message:

We want a theatre!
A mighty, mighty theatre.
Everywhere we go.
We put on a show.
But they’re in our gyms!
That’s why we tell you.
We want a theatre.
A mighty, mighty theatre.

For those of you who missed the meeting, community members, current, former and prospective parents, alumni, and current students expressed confusion and frustration at the District’s handling of El Camino’s signature project and its lack of progress two years after Measure N was approved. Thank you to those of you who were able to attend and support our vision. Thanks, too, to our supporters who courageously approached the microphone to accurately and passionately state our case.

We learned FOUR valuable pieces of information:

  1. Although the Board of Education has not yet voted on specifics, each high school in the district will likely receive $10 million to fund a signature project.
  2. In a significant departure from past information, the new District football field and track at EC will not be charged against EC’s signature project amount.
  3. After all of the community forums wrap up on November 5, district representatives will establish a budget for each high school’s project and state the priority for construction. The budgets and timelines will be presented to the Board in March 2015.
  4. Although ecARTS and the El Camino Community envision a new performing arts center as a facility that will be available to all our feeder schools and community, we have been directed by the school district to refer to this project as the El Camino High School Signature Project.

The cost of our performing arts center is hard to predict without having current plans in hand.

How you can help:

  1. Today is the start of our $5 million fund raising campaign. We need you to share with us the names and contact information of potential large donors ($10,000 - $1,000,000). It would be helpful if you or someone you know has a personal contact with each donor you suggest.  
  2. Attend the next ecARTS meeting on Thursday, November 13 @ 7:00 p.m. in the El Camino Band room. 
  3. Before you cast your vote for SJUSD board candidates on November 4, write each one an email to find out how they would vote on EC’s signature project. Two new trustees will decide the fate of our performing arts center. Candidates are:


Saturday, October 11, 2014

We need your voice on Oct. 13

Since 2010, ecARTS, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, has been committed to building a performing arts center on the campus of El Camino High School. Our goal is to have a facility that meets the visual and performing arts needs of all elementary, middle and high schools in our district. Our architectural design includes an art gallery, multi-use performance space, and seating for 600. The journey towards this dream has had many ups and downs. The bottom line is there is a need, the El Camino faculty and staff are 100% in support of this, and through Bond Measure N, there is money currently available.

The San Juan Unified School District has now scheduled a community forum on Monday, October 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the El Camino cafeteria.  The purpose of this forum is to seek input from our school and local community about this theater project. This forum is different than the forums held last spring.

I am making a plea to our El Camino community to attend this forum in full force and show the district that a performing arts center is truly needed in this district and a worthy expenditure.  I hope to see a packed cafeteria with past, present and future students and families to support this project.

Please share this post with everyone you think would be interested.

For the sake of the arts and the good of our student artists, please try to attend the forum at El Camino on October 13.

Kevin Glaser
Band Director, El Camino High School
President, ecARTS, Inc.