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.”