2 High School Campuses to Get $2.3-Million Theaters

Conejo Valley school officials are moving forward with decades-old plans, stalled for years for lack of money, to build performing arts theaters at two Thousand Oaks high schools.

If the city Planning Commission has no objections after reviewing the plans Monday, construction on the projects at Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park high schools could start as early as this summer and be finished by spring 1997, according to school officials.

“It’s incredible,” said Keith Wilson, principal of Thousand Oaks High School. “It’s a real dream accomplished because there have been so many people working for so long on this. There have been years when drama productions were held in a tent because we had no place to put them.” Planning commissioners will review plans to build the two 400-seat theaters--nearly identical and each costing $2.3 million.

Chief among their concerns will be fly towers atop the theaters that exceed the city’s height restrictions on new buildings. A fly tower is the elevated portion of a theater’s roof that contains the stage curtain when it is lifted.

Commission Chairman Forrest Frields also expressed misgivings over the loss of 48 parking spaces at Newbury Park High to the project.

The theater at Thousand Oaks High, at the campus’ northeast corner, will not cover any parking spots. “I have some concerns about the placement of [the Newbury Park] theater in a parking lot,” Frields said. “It looks a little crowded in there . . . and schools traditionally [do not have enough parking.]” With no jurisdiction over projects on school property, the commission’s recommendations are advisory only. But the school district usually tries to follow its advice, Frields said.

The new theaters will culminate a more than 30-year wait for both schools, whose original building plans included theaters.

Only Westlake High School, one of three comprehensive high schools in the Conejo Valley Unified School District, has a theater in which students can stage plays and other performances.

The two projects were linked nearly 10 years ago in an agreement with the city: The council agreed to pay for one theater using redevelopment money if the school district would foot the bill for the other.

But after the city drained its coffers two years ago to pay for the $64-million Civic Arts Plaza, some school board members began doubting whether they would ever see the theaters built. Although the city voted earlier this year to use $3.3 million to pay for a stadium at Westlake High School and the theater at Thousand Oaks High, school trustee Mildred Lynch remains skeptical about whether the city will deliver.

“We don’t have the money yet, and we don’t know when [we will get it],” Lynch said.

But the city’s word is more than enough for most board members. They are celebrating a deal that makes it possible to bring new theaters to both schools at the same time, allowing them to avoid accusations of favoritism.

“We hope that the fine arts programs of both schools will be tremendously enhanced by having their own theaters,” trustee Richard Newman said. “I’m satisfied so far that we are moving in the right direction.”

City Council members are equally excited. “Ten years later, I am delighted,” Councilwoman Judy Lazar said. “My children are all graduated, but there are certainly another 2,000 at Thousand Oaks and about 1,700 at Newbury Park who will benefit in the years to come.”

Thousand Oaks High now holds performances in a reconfigured wood shop that seats about 100 students. Newbury Park High School students have been using the gymnasium or a revamped classroom.

The new theaters will be built in a contemporary style with glass facades. The exterior walls will be in earth tones.

“We can hardly wait,” Principal Wilson said.