SHS Foundation will raise money for an arts center
By Rebecca Ray
The newly formed Saratoga High School Foundation has set its sights on an arts and lecture center as its first fundraising goal. The center would be used by the Saratoga High School's performing arts students, as well as by the community, .
The auditorium the foundation hopes to build will be located on the corner of Herriman Drive and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. Although parking has to be reconfigured, only about 20 spaces will be lost. Plans call for the center to have an entrance, lobby, about 600 seats, dressing rooms and a large stage.
The foundation, which was officially incorporated on Oct. 26, will help relieve educators of fundraising tasks, leaving them more time to tend to their regular duties. The foundation will operate much as Saratoga Education Foundation, a volunteer group that raises money for grades K through eight in the Saratoga Union School District.
The foundation board consists of 11 Saratoga citizens, including SHS principal Kevin Skelly, Assistant Principal Karen Hyde, parents, staff members, alumni and LG-SJUHSD board member, Ron Adolphson.
Board members anticipate the need to raise approximately $7 million by June 15, 2001 to meet its fundraising goal. So far, the group has some $3 million from a $79 million bond Measure B that was passed on June 2, 1998. The foundation has also raised approximately $500 in individual donations and pledges.
"It's really nice to see that support from the community and to see that crossing of generations here," said board member Linda Allen, whose children have participated in the school's performing arts programs.
The foundation expects to solicit funds from organizational grants, both large and small, and a mailing is planned to SHS parents on Nov. 15.
The high school's performing arts students currently use churches, the Los Gatos High School and West Valley College auditoriums, and the school gym for performances and rehearsals. Although the school also uses its Little Theatre--a makeshift theater that once was part of the cafeteria--it has no dressing rooms and only seats 150 people. The high school's full jazz orchestra and full jazz choir cannot fit together on the stage, and spectators can only hear performances if they sit in the front half of the room.
Although the gym can be used for events that attract more than 150 people, it is not acoustically and spatially designed for lectures and musical performances. "I'm not a musician at all, and even I can tell the acoustics are horrible," Skelly said.
Another problem with the gym is that performing arts groups can't use it on Friday nights, when it's being used for sporting events and recreation classes.
When the February instrumental music program is held at West Valley College, the auditorium is always filled to overflowing, and the stage is too small. The chamber strings, wind ensemble, symphonic band, and full orchestra must take turns performing and reset the stage between the groups' performances, and the symphonic band and orchestra barely fit.
"Now, even if you have a date, you don't know where a performance will be," said Allen.
The school's music and drama groups have grown dramatically during the last few years. Some 500 students, or 40 percent of the student body, participate in performing arts. Seventy-five students sing in the jazz choir and 120 play in the symphonic band, while the drama department has 65 students and continues to grow.
Last year, the school's performance of The Secret Garden won the award for Best Musical in Santa Clara County, and band teacher Mike Boitz was named District Teacher of the Year.
Board member Bill Barmeier, a SHS parent, says he would like to see a facility that is commensurate with the talent at the school.
Principal Skelly agrees. "To have no facility to meet the needs of those kids is a crying shame," he said.
Board members also point out that the center can benefit the entire community because it can be used for lecture series, town hall meetings and dance and film festivals.
Although original drawings of SHS--which was built in 1958--show an auditorium, no auditorium was ever built, probably because the school ran out of money, Skelly said.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
