The Palo Alto Unified School District will fund a new performing arts center to provide more space and newer facilities for Paly’s visual and performing arts department, according to Superintendent Kevin Skelly.

Skelly discussed plans for a new performing arts center in a press conference with Paly journalism publications on Sept. 19.

The construction will not only include building a new performing arts center, but also include renovating sports fields, upgrading old buildings like the Tower Building and the library, and repaving the walkways and driveways, all made possible by the PAUSD Capital Improvement Bond passed on June 3.

On Oct. 14, the PAUSD Board of Education plans to approve a contract with Deems Lewis McKinley, an architecture firm that specializes in school design, to begin the master planning, according to Skelly. The master planning will include decisions for locations and sizes of new buildings. The board plans to prioritize different projects for construction and solidify the master plan by December or January, Skelly said.

Until recently, a new performing arts center was one of many unfunded projects of the district, while the renovations for the Haymarket Theater were set to be funded through the $79 million bond, according to the story published on The Paly Voice on Jan. 8, 2008.

According to Skelly, the district will fund a new performing arts center because an entirely new theater would provide better facilities than renovating Haymarket Theater.

Paly theater teacher Kathleen Woods said that renovating an older building, like Haymarket Theater, could be more costly and difficult than building an entirely new performing center. According to Woods, if the district renovated the building, it would have to increase the size of Haymarket Theater to provide sufficient space.

“With older buildings, it costs more to renovate than build from the ground up,” Woods said. “The space [the Haymarket Theater] is not big enough for the kind of facility we need. If we remodeled the Haymarket, the building would have to expanded. It would have to meet handicap laws. We would end up losing seating space.”

Skelly believes that Haymarket Theater does not provide as ample a learning environment for Paly students as a new performing arts center could.

“Historical buildings are nice but not good for educating kids,” Skelly said.

It is still undecided whether the Haymarket Theater will be replaced by the new performing arts theater or remain separate from it. According to Woods, Haymarket Theater will continue to be used as a performance space until the completion of the new performing arts center.

Skelly expects that construction on Paly campus will start promptly but an exact date has not been determined.

“Our goal is to have the building program up and running very soon,” Skelly said.

The lack of space in Haymarket Theater has inconvenienced other performing arts groups besides theater performers. The bands, orchestra, and choir often perform off-campus due to lack of space in the existing theater.

“The band can barely fit on stage,” Woods said.

Space became an issue when Woods was casting actors for her fall play, On the Razzle, Woods said.

“I had to limit the cast of On the Razzle to 30 people because there wouldn’t be a place to put any more people,” Woods said.

Woods believes that the talented students in Paly’s performing arts programs would be better served by a brand new performing arts center.

“We already have the programs worthy of that kind of facility,” Woods said.