Act 1, Scene 1 at Art School’s New Location

When the Orange County High School of the Arts announced in April its relocation from Los Alamitos to Santa Ana, three questions were “nail biters,” as executive director Ralph Opacic says.

Would the new location attract as many students as the old? Would enough teachers want to work there? And would school be ready to open in the fall--meaning, would the developers and laborers revamping and rewiring the beat-up facility on Main Street accomplish in four months what typically requires 14?

Late last week, Opacic ran up and down the school’s seven flights of stairs--leaving the elevators for workmen hauling chairs and tables--and spoke with a palpable sense of relief.

Enrollment has risen from 425 to more than 900, and thanks to its new location, the school is much more geographically diverse. Last year, five students from Santa Ana attended the school; this year 79 have enrolled. Orange, which had 10 students at the school, will have 71.

The school hasn’t had any problems attracting teachers either. The school had 250 applications for about 30 positions, most from experienced teachers, Opacic said. And even though workers will have to hustle to get furniture in place and to install the just-arrived computers, the school will be ready for its ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.

Last week, students and parents took their first look at the school since a preliminary tour last winter, before construction began. On Thursday, at an orientation night, they oohed and aahed over the views of Santa Ana from the seventh-floor visual arts classrooms as well as at the mirrored walls of the dance and acting studios.

In its new location, the arts school becomes the most diverse school in Santa Ana, a city where the overwhelming majority of students are Latino. As a charter school, the campus is an independent public agency. The high school paid for its own new campus, while the city guaranteed some of the loans.

Although the spectacular renovations and innovations at the school are possible because of a low-interest, $20-million loan from the California Infrastructure and Development Bank, continual fund-raising is necessary.

A state-of-the-art school does not come cheaply, and because the school could easily have accepted more students if it had the room, the school’s foundation is working on a $17.5-million campaign to expand the facilities.

At the orientation night, that rarest of educational commodities was in evidence--hundreds of students burning for school to begin. Bevies of poised, slim girls and their parents filled the dance-class orientations, while the visual arts and musical programs drew a more varied crowd.

Many students said they could not remember when they began to draw, sing or dance--often at age 2 or 3.

Jacqueline Oldridge, 12, sees attending the school as a step toward fulfilling her goal of dancing on Broadway.

“I love dancing, ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop--all of it,” she said.

She would have traveled to any part of the county to attend the high school, and her family was willing to accommodate her.

“Because she loves it so much, we would have found a way,” said her mother, Gloria Oldridge.

Quinesha Perkins, 14, will take the bus from Long Beach.

“I came here because of my voice, my talent,” she said, sitting beside her mother in the musical theater orientation. Perkins discovered her love of music at age 3, when she belted out the rhythm-and-blues hit, “I’m Not Your Superwoman,” to the surprise of her parents.

Orientation, however, had little to do with singing and dancing. Instead, the staff gave parents advice about the guidance necessary for students taking equally rigorous academic and artistic courses.

Students who go to the arts school are, by definition, motivated, and need help to keep from overextending themselves. They will also need help bearing the disappointments that come with being an artist--not getting chosen for performances they’ve worked hard to secure.

To the students, the school is not “Fame,” instructors said. There will be lots of hard work and unlike on television, little or no dancing on tables.

That’s fine with the students.

“Both my parents are artists, and I always wanted to go to this school,” said Topaz Dixon, 13, who will be in the visual arts program. She would not have been able to attend the school if it were still in Los Alamitos, she said.

“Now that it’s moved to Santa Ana, I can,” said the teenager, who lives two blocks away in the historic French Park district and plans to walk to school.