FSUSD breaks ground for $6M performing arts building at Oakbrook Academy
Project funded by Measure J, the $249M bond passed in 2016, and Superintendent Kris Corey says new structure will allow staff, students to take 'their curriculum and creativity even further'
The value of the arts, which supports creative and critical thinking skills so highly prized in a 21stcentury economy, is getting more than symbolic due in Fairfield- Suisun Unified.
The district, the count y ’s largest with some 22,000 students across 30 campuses, recently broke ground on a $ 6 million performing arts building at Oakbrook Academy of the Arts in Fairfield. When completed in August, the structure is projected to enhance the TK- 8 school’s mission of commingling core academic subjects with a wide array of arts offerings, from the visual arts and dance to music and theater.
T he news comes 11 months after state schools chief Tony Thurmond cited the Oakbrook Drive school for its “exemplary arts education,” one of 13 California schools that demonstrated a high level of arts education programs and practices as it transformed into an arts academy. The academy also was a 2020 recipient of the distinguished California School Boards Association Golden Bell Award, given to creative programs and meet the needs of a diverse population of students.
In a press release, Paul Speed, a spokesman for the district, noted that, when opened for the 202122 academic year, the new arts building will replace temporary platforms in the school’s multipurpose room, where students currently perform.
By the numbers, the new structure will house a 1,432- square-foot stage and an auditorium that will seat some 400 people. Also, it will feature a control room, allowing students to learn and operate sound and lighting equipment, and a green room, or a waiting room and lounge, for the performers when not onstage. Additional spaces include backstage storage for set pieces and props and restrooms for audience members.
The building was designed by MADI 19Six Architects, a Sacramento design firm, and is being built by E.F. Brett & Company, after what Speed called in the prepared statement a “highly- competitive bid” with 11 bidders, after which district trustees awarded the job to the Brett firm.
Superintendent Kris Corey expressed excitement that the project will allow the school to “fully embrace its theme.”
“With the new performing arts building, the students will finally have an appropriate performing space with adequate seating for their viewing audience,” she added. “The staff and students have infused the arts into everything they do. This new building will allow them to take their curriculum and creativity even further. We are thankful to the taxpayers and our governing board who made this possible.”
In a previous interview after the state recognition in January, Corey said Principal Justine Turner and her staff “really integrate the arts in the curriculum — even in TK (transitional kindergarten) and all the way up.”
During trip to the campus at the time, Corey said that, upon her arrival, firstgraders were performing the musical “The Sound of Music” and doing a credible job of it.
Information from the school’s online mission statement indicates students experience ex tra days with art, music and dance teachers.
Students in TK, kindergarten and fourth grades focus on music; first and fifth grades on dance; second and sixth on visual arts; third and seventh on theater. Eighthgraders concentrate on all four sets of skills.
According to Corey, Oakbrook is a feeder school for Rodriguez High, “which has award-winning music and dance” programs.
State education officials say Oakbrook and other California Exemplary Arts Education schools serve diverse demographic populations of varying sizes, from a 3,700- student urban school to a 250- student rural school. Some of the arts- oriented schools serve primarily Title I students from lower socioeconomic circumstances and others serve suburban populations with strong district and community financial support.