A School of Hard Knocks : Rolling Hills Estates: Dapplegray Intermediate School, closed since 1987, is a candidate for gradual restoration and conversion to a multiuse cultural center.

Closed nearly six years ago because of declining enrollment and badly vandalized since then, Dapplegray Intermediate School in Rolling Hills Estates may soon be converted to a community center--complete with a children’s theater group and youth athletic programs.

The idea has been proposed by a community theater group called Curtains Up! and already has won support from city planners and officials of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District.

According to Curtains Up! officials, the idea is to open a community theater in one part of the campus while encouraging other organizations to rent space at Dapplegray, slowly converting the campus into a multiuse cultural center.

If approved, the project would end a long effort to find a useful purpose for the school, which has fallen into disrepair since it was closed in 1987.

Located on a 43-acre hilltop campus just off Palos Verdes Drive North, the school is considered an ideal spot for a community center in this woodsy, upscale bedroom city, officials said.

The school board has already voted 5 to 0 in favor of the proposal, and the Planning Commission will consider the idea later this month. The planning staff is recommending approval. However, there are still some problems to be resolved before the children’s theater opens its doors.

The biggest question is how to finance the cleanup and repair of the run-down campus. Members of the theater group have volunteered to clean and paint the three buildings they want to lease, but school officials acknowledge they don’t have enough money to restore the rest of the campus.

The school property, once valued at $17 million, has been left unattended since 1987.

Financially strapped by falling student enrollment and the downturn in the economy, the school board once tried to sell the site but ran into howls of protest from the community. It then attempted to lease the buildings to generate needed income, but that too has proven unsuccessful--until now.

Windows are smashed, doors hang ajar, classrooms are stripped and trashed, and graffiti mars the buildings. The once-attractive lawns and playing fields have gone to weed. Trees and shrubs are shaggy or dead, the yards littered with debris.

School officials said a year ago that it could cost as much as $500,000 to clean up the entire property. If the deal with the theater group goes through, schools Supt. Michael Caston said, the district plans to spend only $50,000 to clean up three buildings that would be used.

“It’s a start,” Caston said.

According to the plan taking shape, the theater group and the school would restore the multipurpose building and two other structures. Then the $54,000 annual rent paid by Curtains Up! would be used to finance the repair of another part of the campus, which in turn would be leased to a youth sports center, a senior citizens center or some other community project, Caston said.

“It’s a piecemeal approach . . . but we can’t afford to fix it up all at once,” he explained.

Curtains Up! took the idea for a step-by-step approach to the school board this summer because it needs a new home for its children’s theater productions. Currently based in the Peninsula Center shopping mall, the group is losing its lease this fall when the center is remodeled.

Last season the nonprofit production company staged shows like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” casting grade-school youngsters in the various roles, a spokesman said.

“We’re proposing a community center specializing in art, drama, dance and music where peninsula residents of all ages can come together,” said Beth Doupe, group spokeswoman. The center could have college extension courses, school tutoring and other educational facilities, she said.

To get the project started, Curtains Up! will formally agree to clean up and rebuild the multipurpose building, turning it into a small theater. Volunteers will also help restore the landscaping and make other repairs, Doupe said.

“The school’s in pretty bad shape,” Doupe said, but she predicted that the community theater patrons would pitch in and help get the project started.

“We want to occupy the site, rent-free, until it is usable, then, starting in January 1993, we’d pay 50 cents a square foot rent,” she said. That amounts to $54,000 a year.

The city Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the project Aug. 31 and, if approved as expected, the matter will go before the council early in September, officials said.