The Performing Arts Center is currently being built in the MHS parking lot to expand opportunities for the music and theater programs, theater teacher Kaila Schwartz said. The center will consist of a main stage, black box theater, and an orchestra pit, Schwartz said. The main stage is where large productions and concerts will take place, but in the black box theater, Schwartz hopes to organize slam poetry sessions, smaller music recitals, and more flexible, intimate shows, she said. There will also be a lobby and rehearsal rooms for the theater, band, and music programs at school, Schwartz said. As the theater and music programs continue to grow, they need more space, she added.
“The theater program has no storage space,” Schwartz said. “As a result, I’ve had a lot of things stolen or broken. And then music (storage space) is beyond capacity.”
The music program will have more space with the new Performing Arts Center and they’d be able to organize larger events for symphony orchestra, choir, and other music programs at MHS, music teacher Emily Moore said.
“With the new theater, it’s going to have a pit,” Moore said. “So we’ll probably be able to do musicals with live musicians.”
The rehearsal rooms will be dedicated to separate parts of the music program: choir, orchestra, and band, which is where classes will be held, and students will have space to practice for shows and productions, she added.
Because this project is so large, it has been in the works since before COVID-19, Assistant Principal Jennifer Hutchison said. A lot of demolition and relocation had to happen to ensure that the Performing Arts Center would be built at the parking lot, she added. “One of the portables, K-5,
which is our workability transition program, was housed there and (it has) since been relocated,” Hutchison said. “And all of the solar panels were moved and repurposed; they weren’t destroyed.”
Because of this construction, the workability transition program has been split between the program’s office at the Innovation Campus and their class at J-13, on campus, Hutchison said. The parking lots have been moved down into the old basketball courts as well, she said. With the destruction of the basketball courts at the lots, the student and teacher parking lots have been shifted down as construction continues, she added.
According to the MUSD website, Bond Measure AA funded the Performing Arts Center and was supposed to fund the construction of facilities like a training room and a smaller gym. The Bond Measure provided MHS with $284 million.
“At this point, because of funding changes since COVID-19, right now, (construction of the training room and smaller gym) are on hold, ” Hutchison said.
While the fencing and construction has affected the student population because of shifts in fencing (for construction) that blocked student’s paths to the extension, administration is working hard to be flexible with policies for the students, Hutchison said.
“I think that the opportunities far outweigh the struggles in the fact that students are going to be able to see, right before their very eyes, a construction project right on campus,” Hutchison said.
“They’re going to be able to see careers that they may be interested in exploring right here on campus, and I think that that’s really incredible.”