Creative Thinking

Fourteen-year-old Kirstin Schlick has grand plans for her future.

“I hope by my senior year I’ll have my own sitcom,” said the sprightly middle-schooler and aspiring actress from Huntington Beach.

Her father, Karl, pleaded for more “‘realistic goals.”

“I hope she becomes a productive young lady in the work force,” the private contractor, 43, said.

Whetting the aspiration of pubescent artists and addressing the more pragmatic concerns of their parents, the Orange County High School of the Arts held an open house Sunday at its new campus in downtown Santa Ana.

The school hopes to recruit about 800 students for the upcoming academic year to meet its enrollment goal of nearly 1,000.

“It is a big bet,” said Ralph Opacic, the school’s principal and executive director. “But we really believe the interest is there.”

The arts school, founded in 1987, outgrew its cramped quarters at Los Alamitos High School last year and began shopping for a separate site. The city of Los Alamitos, however, did not welcome the prospect of increased traffic and environmental concerns that a new school might bring.

Santa Ana, trying to revitalize its downtown area with art galleries and theaters, was more than glad to accommodate the specialized school.

The 120,000-square-foot campus at Main and 10th streets includes a seven-story former bank and a 1922 Mission-style domed church, which school officials plan to convert to a 400-seat auditorium.

On Sunday, about 600 parents and potential students from across Orange County got a taste of what one parent called “Fame West,” referring to the popular 1980s movie and television series about an arts school in New York.

Current students of the school treated the audience to a blues medley that tested the acoustics of the domed church, and a dance troupe performed to the tune of Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West.”

“That was really cool,” an excited Lee Kociella, 13, said. The eighth-grader from Hewes Middle School in North Tustin said he hopes to enroll this fall. “It’s just amazing they can do that.”

The school’s extensive arts program--which includes dance, music, theater, opera and visual arts--is a welcome educational opportunity, said Lee’s mother, Erin.

“There is just nothing on this scale” locally, she said. “The fact that it is public is wonderful.”

The charter school, though part of the Santa Ana Unified School District, will function independently, with its own board of directors. For regular academic subjects, the school faces the daunting task of hiring 30 to 35 teachers, who had been provided by Los Alamitos High School. The school also expects to increase its part-time faculty of arts professionals to 100 from about 60. Opacic is optimistic the school will meet its challenges.

“Just today, I had about 20 teachers who were interested in jobs,” he said. “This is an environment where kids really want to be here. That is a draw for teachers.”

Ashley Elder, 16, a junior in the musical-theater program, said the school is challenging and offers a good preparation for young talents with dreams of stardom.

Graduates of the school include Susan Egan, who played Belle in the Broadway production of “Beauty and the Beast”; Jennifer Martin, a member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; and Kamilah Martin, a lead in the national tour of “Rent.”

Opacic said more than 600 prospective students have requested applications for the seventh- to 12th-grade school. He expects the number to increase to nearly 2,000 once the marketing and outreach campaigns to local middle and high schools is completed this summer.

Officials also hope the Santa Ana location will draw a more diverse student body, currently 66% white.

Talent auditions begin today at Los Alamitos High School and continue until May 20. Students must maintain a C average in their academic subjects to stay in the school.