Conejo School Board Approves High School Theater, Elementary Campus Expansion

Pushing forward with an aggressive effort to meet a projected enrollment boom, the Thousand Oaks school board Thursday approved plans for a performing arts center at Thousand Oaks High School and expansion of tiny Madrona School.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District is growing by about 100 students a year, and officials expect to hit a peak enrollment of more than 19,000 students by 2010. The district now has 17,765 students.

New housing developments, particularly in Lang Ranch, have contributed to growth in Thousand Oaks schools. And officials are eagerly meeting the demand for more facilities.

“We’re going great guns,” Supt. Jerry C. Gross said. “Our long-term plans are to gradually expand to meet the gradual expansion that we are feeling.”

At a Thursday afternoon study session, board members discussed current and future construction projects.

Later at the board’s regular night meeting, trustees approved preliminary plans for two long-awaited projects: a 400-seat theater at Thousand Oaks High School and classroom expansion at Madrona School, an elementary campus.

Although construction is years away, the projects required board approval before architects could move ahead with designs for the new buildings, officials said.

“This is the first step in the design phase,” Assistant Supt. Sarah Hart said.

Along with the theater at Thousand Oaks High, the board already has approved plans for an identical theater at Newbury Park High School.

Both theaters are expected to be built in the next three years. Each will cost about $2.3 million and will be funded with city redevelopment money and developer fees.

Thousand Oaks High School’s theater project appeared to be in jeopardy last fall after the city drained its redevelopment fund to pay for the new Civic Arts Plaza.

But school officials said they expect the city to keep its promise to pay for the facility.

“We have every reason to believe they will fund it,” Gross said.

In 1993, the city signed a contract guaranteeing to pay $2.3 million for construction of the theater and $1.1 million to build an athletic stadium at Westlake High School, Gross said.

Construction of the stadium is under way and expected to be completed by the end of the school year, officials said. Since the city could not afford to build the stadium, the district fronted the money but expects to be reimbursed by the city, Gross said.

To meet the demands of increasing enrollment, the board also voted Thursday to expand Madrona School, a small campus in central Thousand Oaks. Additional parking will be added this summer, and a new classroom and expanded multipurpose room will be built during the next two years.

The expansion is expected to cost the district about $2 million and will be funded with developer fees, officials said.

The board also approved plans Thursday to change the boundaries of Ladera and Park Oaks elementary schools to reduce overcrowding caused by housing construction in Lang Ranch.

Ladera, the district’s largest elementary campus, had a peak enrollment of 650 students this year.

In the next five years, the district plans to build Lang Ranch Elementary School to keep up with the construction of 2,257 residences in the northeastern end of Thousand Oaks.

School leaders said they were excited about the numerous construction projects, which total nearly $7 million.

“It’s like we’ve been planting the seeds for years and now we get to harvest,” Hart said.

“It’s wonderful to see the dreams and visions of a lot of people become realities.”