An offer by the Escondido family that manufactures
Dr. Bronner’s soap to donate $1 million to the Boys
& Girls Club, to be used for a new clubhouse in Valley
Center would seem to be a win-win.
However, some members of the Valley Center Music Boosters
objected Thursday night when the school board voted unanimously
to accept the offer by the Boys and Girls Club of North County
to turn the old upper school gym into a permanent boys and
girls clubhouse.
The facility in what is now the Alternative Education Center
would be remodeled to add classroom space for art and computer
classes as well as a large area for group activities.
The Boys and Girls Club would use it after school and on weekends.
The club would lease the building from the school district
for 20 years.
That room has been used as the elementary school music room
for many years now.
Diane Conaway, president of the Boosters, told the board that
the Boosters fear they will be given a music room that isn’t
as good as the one they are using now.
“What will happen to the VC Elementary band programs
that have used this room as their band room for fifteen years?”
she asked the board.
“Most people hearing about the donation may not realize
that the gain of one program for a few students after school
may mean the loss of another for hundreds. The last time I
checked twenty to thirty kids go through the Boys and Girls
Club program,” she said.
Under the agreement with the Boys and Girls Club the school
district continues to have the right to use the building for
school during school hours.
That doesn’t help the band program, insisted Mrs. Conaway.
“We have already been informed that the building is
being remodeled and will not be designed to include band and
therefore must be relocated. This building was built as the
gym originally, but it is ideally suited for music as it is
the largest room with the highest ceiling,” she said.
Supt. Lou Obermeyer told Mrs. Conaway, “We are going
to relocate music to the upper school, and spend money to
renovate it.”
The building that will be used for the band program has a
venerable history with the school district, having been used
at various times as the cakewalk room for the Halloween Carnival,
drama storage room and old library.
“I’m aware of the plan to renovate the old library
at the upper school,” said Mrs. Conaway. “I’m
very concerned that it will not make an adequate band room.
You need high ceilings, and practice room, so that no one
goes deaf. The small room is not adequate. How do you get
a hundred kids into that room?”
After the meeting Mrs. Conaway told The Roadrunner: “The
challenges in making this room into a music room are many
and all have costs associated with them. With the school’s
shrinking budget, where will the money for rehabbing the band
room come from? The grant allows remodeling of the gym for
the Boys and Girls Club only. We have heard the budget presentations
that say we have excess funds in the schools’ facility
budget that can only be used for facilities and improvements.
We hope so, because the intended room needs lots of renovation
just to make it habitable—let alone be suitable for
music.”
She added, “If you’ve ever been in the middle
school or high school band rooms, you know they are large
with very high ceilings so that our children can learn and
practice music without harming their ears. This new room must
be the same! The room must be large enough to accommodate
up to a hundred children at a time along with their instruments.
The students must be able to be arranged so that they are
able to see the instructor to receive adequate musical instruction.”
Dr. Obermeyer told The Roadrunner that she was somewhat surprised
that the Boosters waited until now to bring up their objections.
“We’ve told the Music Boosters and teacher about
this. They've known since last February or March that we've
had the offer from Boys and Girls Club to renovate the old
gym and they've known, as well as Jeff Beck, that we are planning
to renovate/remodel two classrooms at the upper school. We
are going to purchase appropriate acoustic ceiling tiles and
have been researching to be sure we have everything correct.”
