District Plans Arts Academy

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s former downtown headquarters, which was originally slated to be converted into a traditional high school, will instead become an arts academy, district officials said.

The project will cost approximately $20 million more than the $56 million the district originally budgeted.

“This is a remarkable achievement,” said school board member Jose Huizar. “We are putting a top-notch, high-caliber visual and performing arts high school in the inner city.”

Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad lent the district $600,000 to revise plans and help build the academy at 450 N. Grand Ave. The board approved the loan Tuesday and gave permission to change design plans for the 1,500-student high school that had previously been approved by the district and state.

The 234,000-square-foot arts academy will include a theater as well as rehearsal, music, production and dressing rooms. It will provide specialized curricula in visual and performing arts.

“The kids that live in this community deserve a world-class school, and that is what we believe the arts academy will be,” said Melissa Bonney Ratcliff, a spokeswoman for the Broad Foundation.

Huizar said the school is worth the increased costs because the students, who mostly come from low-income families, will have an opportunity to experience a quality curriculum on a campus that is near several distinguished art institutions downtown, such as the Music Center.

The additional costs for the arts academy would be covered under a $3.3-billion construction bond measure, if it passes Nov. 5. As part of the loan agreement with Broad, the district would not be required to pay back the $600,000 interest-free loan if the bond issue fails.

Broad, chairman of SunAmerica insurance company, is a confidant of L.A. Unified Supt. Roy Romer who donated $16,000 to Alliance for a Better Community, the nonprofit organization that was chosen by the district to complete the Belmont Learning Center, another high school in downtown.

The district also recently used $100,000 donated by Broad to hire the Rose & Kindel lobbying firm to educate voters about the bond measure.

The board will vote on a resolution by Huizar at the end of the month that would require admission to the arts academy to be reserved only for downtown students.

“We cannot open it up to all [students] until we get all kids off buses, send them to neighborhood schools and go back to traditional calendars” instead of year-round schedules, Huizar said.

The academy is scheduled to open in 2004.