A DISAPPOINTING PERFORMANCE HIGH SCHOOL ARTS CENTERS DELAYED AGAIN.Byline: CONNIE LLANOS llanos (yä`nōs), Spanish American term for prairies, specifically those of the Orinoco River basin of N South America, in Venezuela and E Colombia. Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, -- Canyon High School's award-winning choir has sung its way around the country. The choir has been to San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and even was invited to Beijing. But the singers still feel like no one's listening. ``We want to represent who we are, and we need to have a place that shows that,'' self-proclaimed super senior Alexandru Ivanescu said. After more than three years of waiting for a performing arts center A performing arts center, often abbreviated PAC, is a multi-use performance space that can be adapted for use by various types of the performing arts, including dance, music and theatre. to call their own, Canyon's theater and choir students learned last week the project had been delayed, again. Right next door to the choir room, Canyon's enterprising theater program is also feeling the neglect. As the leading man in ``Beauty and the Beast Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale (type 425C -- search for a lost husband -- in the Aarne-Thompson classification). The first published version of the fairy tale was a meandering rendition by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in ,'' Canyon senior Garett Deagon has trouble walking through the hallways of the 16-year-old black box theater For the theater in Oslo, Norway, see Black Box Teater. The black box theater is a relatively recent innovation, consisting of a simple, somewhat unadorned performance space, usually a large square room with black walls and a flat floor. on campus. The cabinets -- installed by students with money raised by enterprising teachers -- have nails poking out. The doors are coming off the hinges, and the black paint is chipping at the corners. ``It's like we are last on the list,'' Deagon said. ``Time and time again, the fire marshal fire marshal n. 1. The head of a department or office that is charged with the prevention and investigation of fires. 2. A person in charge of firefighting personnel and equipment at an industrial plant. Noun 1. comes and marks us down, yet no one is offering to make it better.'' Most of these students, some in choir or theater since they were freshmen, won't get a chance to perform on their own school stages. Officials with the William S. Hart Union High School District now say the performing arts center won't open until 2010. There isn't enough money. Students blame their school for a lack of interest, and the district for skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data priorities. The saga between Canyon and Saugus, and the Hart District, has been dragging on for at least three years, when talks began of building new performing arts centers at the decades-old campuses. Three years ago, the nonprofit Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley is the valley of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. It stretches through Los Angeles County and Ventura County. Its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,672. Facilities Foundation, which facilitates property purchases for the Hart District, committed to $14million. The foundation buys land for the district, builds schools on the parcels and sells the unused land, an effort to speed the process through state red tape. In 2004, after months of visits to other facilities and hours of meetings involving arts teachers, school administrators, designers and architects, two ideal building designs were finalized. But the costs came in $12million over the budgeted $14million. ``I felt sick to my stomach and left that meeting in tears,'' said Mary Purdy, Canyon High 25-year choir teacher. No one knows this tug-of-war better than the teachers who have devoted endless hours of unpaid time to getting these performing arts centers. They were among those present when the school board announced its decision to halt the projects. The board had, months earlier, asked the planning committee planning committee n (in local government) → comité m de planificación for the centers to ``value engineer'' -- cut back -- what they could from the centers to make them financially feasible. ``I am just trying to maintain a positive attitude,'' drama teacher Marilyn Pilkey said. Pilkey built the black box theater that now stands as Canyon's only performance area, when she began teaching at the school 16 years ago. Bonnie bon·ny also bon·nie adj. bon·ni·er, bon·ni·est Scots 1. Physically attractive or appealing; pretty. 2. Excellent. Bennett joined Pilkey eight years later, and together with their students, they hammered wood planks to build the homemade stage. They have accepted lighting and seating donations and have washed multiple cars and sold plenty of chocolates to raise money for their theater and their shows. Plans to modernize the campus call for razing the theater -- leaving Canyon with no space for performing arts. The students have their own ideas about why there's no money left for them. ``They built the football field in less than a semester,'' said senior Brittany Looney, who has been in stage craft at Canyon since her freshman year. ``People just don't care
"Don't Care" is a 1994 (see 1994 in music) single by American death metal band Obituary. about the arts,'' 17-year-old Chris Zepeda said. During the four years that Canyon and Saugus have been waiting for the performing arts centers, all six district high schools have been fitted with top-of-the-line turf fields. Stadiums were built at Canyon and Valencia high schools. Hart Superintendent Jaime Castellanos said it's a matter of time and priorities. ``We were one of the first districts to put in artificial fields; that shows the value this community has on athletics,'' Castellanos said. ``Performing arts centers take more time to construct.'' Assistant Superintendent Assistant Superintendent, or Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), was a rank used by police forces in the British Empire. It was usually the lowest rank that could be held by a European officer, most of whom joined the police at this rank. Leslie Crunelle, who helped plan the performing arts centers, said the arts are just as important as athletics. ``They are just competing for resources,'' Crunelle said. Crunelle said that while she had no definite answer as to why the projects have taken this long, she is sure this last halt will be temporary. ``It is frustrating; everything takes longer than we want it too,'' she said. But at Canyon High -- where students are sick of improvising stages and performance venues -- the drama and choir students are demanding their spotlight. ``We work just as hard as the football players at this school,'' senior Megan Denny said. ``We know football gets attention because they're winning, but look at our trophies, we're winning, too. ``We are not asking to get all the money. That would just be reversing the situation. We just want things to be fair.'' connie.llanos(at)dailynews.com (661) 257-5254 |
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