Performing arts center to open doors spring of 2018 | Fundraising begins for furnishings

Following a vote on February 9th, San Juan Unified District staff and the school site are now moving forward on a state-of-the-art performing arts center at El Camino Fundamental High School.  The bidding process will begin in March and conclude by June 2016.  We anticipate construction to begin in February 2017, with doors opening in the spring of 2018.

While the final design may include some alterations, a user group including band director Kevin Glaser, choir teacher David Vanderbout, and ECHS parents and students developed a list of components to be included in the performing arts center.  The theater will include 500 fixed seats (with room for approximately 100 extra chairs to be set up to accommodate larger crowds), a large stage, and dressing rooms.  The project design also includes a lobby, backstage area, theater lighting, restrooms, and a control room.  Acoustical engineers will be consulted to maximize sound quality in the building.

The 11,593-square-foot building will be constructed within the current senior parking lot.  The lobby will have space to display artwork, a merchandise concession area, ticket booth and men’s and women’s restrooms, and current designs include a covered outdoor area that will serve as an extension of the lobby.

Future enhancements could include new shop classrooms, enhanced street access to the performing arts center, and beautification of the landscaping to increase curb appeal. 

Ten million dollars in Measure N funds will go toward building the performing arts center itself.  However, all the elements that go into staging a concert or production will not be included.  Therefore, a fundraising committee is hard at work, dreaming up ways to raise funds to purchase all the items we’ll need to put on a good show.  (The committee has also been looking at possible grants for this purpose, and the performing arts center will remain on the list for future STARS donations.) 

Would you like to help?  The ecARTS committee welcomes new members!  Watch this space for announcements about upcoming meetings.

Donations are also gladly accepted, whether they are general contributions or donations for specific item.  Here are some of the items we'll need, along with their estimated costs. Please spread the word!

Stage Equipment

• Music Stands $2,500
• Choral Risers $3,500
• Stage Risers $5,000
• Stage Shells $10,000
• Conductor Podium and Music Stand $2,000
• Musician Chairs (stage and pit orchestra) $7,000

Large, non-portable instruments

• Timpani $15,000
• Bass Drum $1,000
• Mallets (xylophone, marimba, vibraphone) $15,000
• Grand Piano $80,000

Support Equipment

• Make-up Tables and Mirrors $500
• Costume Racks and Storage $500
• Shop Equipment for Set Design $5,000

Box Office and Manager's Office Equipment 

• Desk, shelves, computer with ticket sale software, printer, copier $6,000

Concession Appliances and Equipment

• Refrigerator, microwave, soda dispenser, popcorn machine $4,000

Gallery Equipment

• Pedestals and Movable Walls $3,000

Three easy ways to donate:

1. Click the DONATE button above and to the right
2. Send a check payable to ecARTS to Kevin Glaser, El Camino High School, 4300 El Camino Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95821.
3. Contact Kevin Glaser at kglaser@sanjuan.edu or (916) 971-7449. 

Keep up on El Camino's project and all Measure N signature projects at www.sanjuan.edu/hsprojects.

Performing Arts Center news

Good news regarding El Camino’s performing arts center! Principal Shelly Friery and Kevin Glaser met with district officials to establish a proposed timeline for our project:

• Send out a Request for Proposals -- February 2016
• Select a contractor/architect -- March 2016
• Break ground -- summer 2017
• PAC opens -- summer of 2018 

In the meantime, the Fund Raising Committee will raise $170,000 for interior furnishings not covered by our bond measure funds. We would appreciate your help in getting the word out. To make a gift, either:

• Click the "Donate" link to the right, or
• Send a check payable to ecARTS to Kevin Glaser, El Camino High School, 4300 El Camino Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95821.

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:

• Incumbent Greg Paolo (greg.paulo@sanjuan.edu);   
• Michael Miller (http://www.millerschoolboard.com/contact);
• Michael Alcalay (http://www.michaelalcalay.com/contact); 
• Mike McKibbin (http://www.mikemckibbin.org/test-contact-form/);
• Paula Villescaz (http://www.paulaforschoolboard.com/contact_us).

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.

Focused and positive!

As the President of ecARTS, part of my "job description" is to make sure this organization remains focused on our goal and positive in our actions. Over the past couple of months I often had to remind myself of my own philosophy of "Attitude is Everything"!

Since August, we have experienced some setbacks that took us by surprise. However, in the past week some very positive things have occurred in our favor. Specifically, at the recent community forum administered by DLR, the company hired by the San Juan School District to present a master plan for measure N funding.

• El Camino staff, administration, students, parents, PTSA, and Athletic Boosters bonded together to inform DLR (and the San Juan School District) that our number one priority at El Camino is to build a state of the art 600 seat performing arts center with measure N funds.
• In addition, each of our feeder schools (Starr King, Arcade, Cowan, Mission Avenue) also desire a performing arts center that serves their student arts programs.
• El Camino’s presentation at the community forum was received with applause and cheers by our feeder schools.

It makes perfect sense that the district build a single facility to serve the needs of the entire west end of our district. This has always been our intention! El Camino has the space and is in a logical location.

With the support of our school community, ecARTS is in a powerful position to see our vision come to fruition. As discussed at our meeting on Tuesday, we will invite the DLR team to the fall band concert and winter madrigal dinner concert to allow them to actually see why there is a need for a new facility.

So, the point of this communication is to remind us all (including myself) why we came together and to keep our eye on the prize! Attitude really is everything!

Thank you all for everything you have done and continue to do for our cause.

Kevin Glaser

Architect hired to create concept drawings

You've probably been wondering what we've been up to the last several months. The answer? A lot!

First, our hard work on Measure N paid off! The district now has $350 million of breathing room with respect to much needed improvements for all schools in our district.

Second, it was announced to ecARTS by the school district that money is being earmarked for our long-awaited performing arts center on El Camino's campus. 

In the last several months, the design committee met and developed a rough outline of necessary features for our performing arts center, based on surveys conducted with district elementary, middle, and high schools, and community performing groups.

Next, we submitted requests for proposal to three well-know area architects for concept drawings and project estimates. LPAS submitted the winning proposal -- designer of the Three Stages at Folsom Lake College and several other performing arts centers in the western U.S.

Between now and the end of May, ecARTS together with LPAS will prepare a design concept for district approval.

It's going to happen, folks! The Performing Arts Center at El Camino High School will soon be a reality.

Status update

Our last blog post was May of 2011, but rest assured we have not been idle. In fact, quite the contrary! We hired a fund raising consultant to conduct a feasibility study to determine the viability of a performing arts center on the campus of El Camino High School. First, we have a new website which fully outlines our vision.

Feasibility study results
The consultant conducted private interviews with alumni, business leaders, and community members selected based on their potential ability to donate $100,000 or more to the campaign. The findings of the study indicate that the need is real and the community is intrigued, but the facility must serve the entire San Juan Unified School District—one of ecARTS’ original stipulations. So we’re definitely on the right track.

Lack of performance space
As a follow-up to the feasibility study, we created an exhaustive list of available performance venues within a 10 mile radius of El Camino High School. The results point to a lack of affordable theater space with 500-600 seats for San Juan Unified students.

Arts programs surveys
Additionally, we surveyed the leaders of SJUSD arts programs and community-based arts programs. The overwhelming findings of these surveys indicate that groups are more than ready for a state-of-the-art theater with a professional stage, sound system, dressing rooms, reception area, and enough seats to accommodate audience members.

Where do we go from here?
Divide and conquer is our new mantra.

1.       Based on survey responses, the Design Committee has created a list of features to be included in the performing arts center with relative square footage requirements. Area architects are providing valuable input and cost estimates.

2.       The Communications Committee is working with the Boosters and PTSA at El Camino High School to develop a comprehensive database of alumni and friends.

Tell your friends, SJUSD alumni, and community businesses about ecARTS’ plan to become a hub for the arts in the Arden-Arcade area.

The "Who Do You Know?" Game

We are looking for connections to major companies such as Smart Water, Geico Insurance, Capitol Coors, 7UP, Raley's, and Coke. If you know someone (or know someone who knows someone), we would love to hear about it. Please email us at performatec@yahoo.com.

On a performance-related note, spring is performance time across the San Juan Unified School District (visit the district's Artsworthy newsletter for a full line up.) On tap this weekend:

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
El Camino High School
March 11, 12 at 7:00 pm
Does losing make you a loser? This hilarious musical will take you through the twists and turns of the lives of six young spellers who struggle with puberty and their group of adult advisors mired in their own childhoods.

Tickets available at the door.
$7 students, children, seniors; $9 adults
Contact Sheryl Lee with questions: shlee@sanjuan.edu or 916.971.7996 x 4377

ecARTS To Sign MOU with District & Partner with San Juan Education Foundation

According to ecARTS president, Kevin Glaser, "We are 100% supported by the San Juan Unified School District and the Superintendent [Pat Juarequi] to do what we need to do to build a theater on this campus."

The district is preparing a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) that must be approved before ecARTS makes specific decisions about the building's design or construction. After the building is constructed the SJUSD will assume ownership.

Unfortunately, the district's support does not include the money to build the performing arts center and gallery. In order to raise the necessary $15 million, ecARTS is in the process of cementing a partnership with the San Juan Education Foundation, a private nonprofit organization dedicated to excellence in education for all San Juan Unified School District students. The SJEF's nonprofit status will allow ecARTS' donors to deduct their contributions at tax time. We look forward to working with the committed individuals at the foundation who will help us prepare a successful fund raising campaign.

Next Meeting:  April 12, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the El Camino Band Room
Join us in implementing our vision for your student's future.

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!”