Arts School Dancing on Thin Ice

Orange County High School of the Arts danced onto its new Santa Ana campus last year with an expanded student population and more offerings. But now, beset by budget woes, school officials warn that the program may be forced to scale back.

The school is falling far short of its goal to enroll 30% of its students from Santa Ana’s crowded urban campuses, drawing criticism from some members of the district school board. And plans for an elementary arts school to help train more students could be put off because of the state’s fiscal problems.

“I think that the school has much to do yet to meet the needs of the children of Santa Ana,” said board member Nativo V. Lopez.

The Santa Ana school board granted the arts school a charter, enabling it to move from Los Alamitos and allowing it to receive state money and yet operate independently of many state requirements.

Santa Ana officials were excited about the opportunities the nationally recognized campus could bring to the city’s children, but its students make up less than 10% of the school’s enrollment of 1,060. The school offers classes in seventh through 12th grades, selecting students through an application-and-audition process that draws from throughout Orange County and even neighboring counties.

“It’s not the stellar performance that we expected [in terms of enrolling Santa Ana students] and that we’ve observed artistically,” Lopez said. “We are encouraging them to do better.”

Ralph Opacic, who founded the school 14 years ago at Los Alamitos High School, said officials have plans to bring in more Santa Ana students but have been stymied by two factors: a lack of applications from parents and students who have never heard of the school; and the poverty within the district, which means many students have not had the years of instrument and dance lessons needed to audition.

Meanwhile, Opacic’s hopes to open a new charter elementary school in September to help prepare Santa Ana children for the rigorous arts academy may be delayed by proposed state funding cuts.

Already this fall, school officials slashed $220,000 after receiving less state money than expected. That led to the cancellation of the winter concert, curtailment of sessions with master teachers and a 10% budget cut in all departments, from opera to television.

Now, officials fear the stage is set for more cuts in both academics and arts. A projected downturn in donations means the school could face an additional shortfall of nearly $200,000 this year, Opacic said.

Parents and students worry about the news, but have vowed to hit the streets and the corporate boardrooms to raise money. Students and school officials also have pledged to encourage more Santa Ana students to apply.

“This school changed my son’s life,” said Wendy Tobiska, whose son Cory transferred from Santa Ana High School last year. “You hear it from parents all the time: This school has been a life-changing experience.”

Senior Victoria Castilla, 17, a dancer who transferred from Santa Ana’s Saddleback High School last fall, agreed: “This school is fabulous. Amazing. Incredible. What can I say?”

As a young girl, Victoria did not have private dance lessons. Instead, she took classes at the nonprofit St. Joseph’s Ballet in Santa Ana. When the arts school moved to Santa Ana, her teachers encouraged her to apply.

Victoria spends one evening a week teaching ballet and jazz dance to Santa Ana youngsters who cannot afford lessons. And when she finishes college, she wants to come back to Santa Ana and teach dance. “They need the arts,” she said. “They need to know that something is there and they can go beyond themselves.”

It is for children like Victoria that Opacic started Camp OCHSA, a Tuesday evening program in which teenagers offer free arts classes to youngsters in Santa Ana. And it is why he has promised that arts students will put on more than 50 free performances at Santa Ana schools this year.

But Lopez, the Santa Ana school board member, is not satisfied. He wants to see more after-school programs and more efforts to get Santa Ana children to apply.

Opacic said Santa Ana officials need to meet them halfway by helping to develop an outreach program. “When you take into consideration that in one short year we’ve opened a new school . . . we’ve made tremendous strides,” he said.

Arts school officials also said one way to make up the gap would be a new charter arts school for elementary students so the district can train its own future artists for the high school. School representatives have talked to Santa Ana board members about the elementary school, but have not yet formally applied for a charter.

“I really hope they can find money for that school,” said district trustee Sal Tinejero. “That would solve the problem because now you would have a sixth-grade class [of Santa Ana students] that every year would merge into OCHSA.”

Officials were counting on new state funds for charter schools, funds that were approved but are among the items that Gov. Gray Davis proposed cutting back to balance the state budget.

“The question is: Are we going to be able to continue to offer the highest-quality arts and academic education?” said Opacic, a former high school vocal teacher who founded the program at Los Alamitos High School in 1987. “Or are we going to have to look at more cuts?”

Though it’s public, the arts school spends nearly twice as much per student as most public campuses--largely relying on donations from corporations and parents. In addition, it must pay the mortgage on its building in Santa Ana.

The school had counted on about $2.2 million in donations this year. But school administrators fear that corporate donations will fall with the sinking economy. Meanwhile, only half the school’s parents have given money this year, compared with 80% last year.

But the school sees signs of hope. After a series of parent meetings to warn of the bumpy road ahead, checks from parents have begun arriving--$200,000 has come from parents and foundation board members in the last three weeks.

“I want to be a launching pad to talented young artists,” Opacic said. “We may have to make adjustments . . . but we’ll hang on to make sure we’re here for the long run.”