Much of the Saint Francis High School campus has remained in its original configuration since the school was founded in 1954. But that will soon change.
Last week, the school received approval from the city’s zoning staff to move forward on a multi-million dollar campus improvement at 1885 Miramonte Ave.
Included in the plans is a new performing arts center, a two-story library building with a student union hall, and a remodeled gymnasium.
The main incentive for the campus facelift is that it is simply time to upgrade, said Kevin Makley, Saint Francis’ administrative president. The school, with 1,495 students, wants to “add some things we haven’t had before,” he said.
Makley said the campus’ current theater was built when the school was founded, and that its 100-seat capacity does not adequately accommodate the production size of the school’s theater arts performances or the audience. Many practices and some performances are held in the school’s cafeteria because of this.
“We really are in need of a new one,” he said.
Makley said the new performing arts center will have room for theater productions, concerts and choir and band performances.
“To have a dedicated performing arts center — that’s huge for us. It’s an especially fun project because there is a lot of excitement generated through the performing arts here,” Makley said.
The projected cost of the performing arts center is $12 million to $13 million, Makley said.
“We have to raise the money for every project that we do, and we pay as we go,” Makley said. “But we’re very optimistic.”
Construction on the performing arts center is slated to break ground in the spring of 2008, and should last roughly 11 months, in time for the annual spring musical in 2009, he said.
The performing arts center is the first of several phases of campus development that the school would like to see happen. After the completion of the center in 2009, the school will begin on a two-story library building, with a student union located on the first floor.
Makley said it will be the first time in the school’s history that there will be a student union hall.
Refurbishing the existing gymnasium would take place some time after that, Makley said.
Stephanie Williams, the city’s project planner who is working with Saint Francis on the development, said many schools across the Peninsula have begun to see the need to update existing structures.
“Definitely a lot of schools in this area were built when the area was first developing,” she said. “There’s a desire to improve them to meet today’s needs.”
Williams said Saint Francis will need to work its way through the building permit process, and the city will conduct an on-site parking study before the spring 2008 groundbreaking.
