Curtain call: CUSD may drop theater project

Posted: Friday, September 21, 2012
By Mike Taylor Calaveras Enterprise

As its financial future teeters on the brink, trustees of the Calaveras Unified School District may close the curtain on the performing arts center planned for Calaveras High School.

The theater was promised to voters in 2006, when Measure A, a $13.5 million facilities bond was passed. In 2008, former Superintendent Jim Frost said that the district might have asked for too little money with Measure A because administrators and bond supporters set the $13.5 million mark based on keeping assessments charged to improved parcels in the district at about $70 a year, rather than on what the district needed to complete all of its dream projects, including the theater.

At Tuesday’s regular meeting – which will be held at the West Point Elementary School multipurpose room – trustees will consider canceling the construction of the 501-seat theater, a project that has been plagued with financing issues from very early in its development process.

Trustees were shocked in 2008 when the first set of bids came in from a dozen firms at well over the estimate the Sacramento firm of California Design West Architects Inc. attached to the plans. It was believed that skyrocketing fuel prices contributed to higher materials costs for the project at that time. Trustees of the district voted unanimously to reject all bids received on the project. Frost said at the time that the bids ranged from $8.1 million to more than $9 million. The last bid trustees could have awarded – at $7.8 million – came in lower than the original bids, but was still out of reach.

The project that once included additional rooms for set construction classes, an amphitheater, a moveable orchestra pit and dressing rooms with showers – believed to be attractants for more professional companies that might have come to perform at the space – was eventually trimmed down to a $5.4 million theater suitable for drama productions and concerts that didn’t involve large numbers of performers.

The district-wide band concert that includes every student who performs on an instrument generally features nearly 1,000 children. In order for their parents to watch the show, the concert is staged inside the Mike Flock Gym on the San Andreas campus. But with a budget that shows the district can barely make all of its payments over the next three years, there is a question as to whether band programs may be available at CUSD schools in the next couple of years.

Even as a more favorable bidding climate came as the economy worsened – contractors were willing to trim profits in order to keep their crews working – the district couldn’t quite line up all of its money to reach the more than $5 million goal.

The stalled building climate in Calaveras County further impacted the theater, as CUSD officials originally planned to use developer fees to infuse needed cash into the project. Developer fees are collected from all new construction projects within the district and then-Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Mike Merrill said the district once collected about $1 million a year from developers. But by the 2010-2011 fiscal year, CUSD only received about $100,000 in developer fees.

On May 29, trustees approved a complicated refinancing plan at a meeting devoted solely to the theater project. If they hadn’t moved to ink a contract for construction at that time, the district would have lost $1.2 million in funds earmarked for the theater from the state and design costs would have again escalated because approved plans for the building would have expired.

The plan would have seen the district lease the theater from F&H Construction of Lodi as a means of financing part of the project. Trustees also voted at the time to move ahead with a refinancing plan for its Certificates of Participation – borrowing mechanisms for school and municipal projects – that would have extended the number of years the COPs would have been active.

Mark Epstein, part owner of California Financial Services, which assists school districts with bonds and financial planning, explained that two of Calaveras Unified’s Certificates of Participation would have been refinanced to take advantage of lower interest rates today and to obtain about $500,000 (in interest payments saved) needed to complete the theater. The plan would have had stable payments on the COPs for 13 years, but payments increased from 2026 to 2035.

At a study session on Saturday devoted to district goals and its budget, trustees lamented how they might pay to maintain the new theater and whether they could afford to hire someone to manage it.

“The maintenance and staffing of the facility will come from our general fund, which would be the fund which pays our teachers and for the maintenance of the facilities that we are currently attempting to maintain,” said Evan Garamendi. “We have much to do with the facilities that we currently operate.”

“I am not in favor of proceeding with the construction of the performing arts center at this time,” she continued. “I am conscious of the obligation in the bond, but that was passed in an entirely different climate. When our economy improves, I am more than willing to revisit my thoughts.”

The new pool at Calaveras High, playground facilities at several district schools, two athletic fields at Toyon Middle School, 16 new classrooms at Valley Springs Elementary and a district and county joint-use library were completed as part of the Measure A proceeds. The theater was the final large project in the plan.

“I can equally advocate for either direction,” said Superintendent Mark Campbell. “I have always been torn between our obligation to the community with our bond objectives and our fiscal challenges in the short and long term. Either way, we will make the best of the situation and do what we have to do to do right by the district and the community.”

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the school at Bald Mountain Road and Highway 26 in West Point. Trustees will hear a budget update and will receive CUSD’s unaudited actuals, which include a snapshot of district spending as the 2011-2012 fiscal year’s books were closed.