Education

San Dieguito Academy Opens New Performing Arts Center

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published August 30, 2011 at 6:56 AM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

In spite of painful school budget cuts, one North County high school is opening a new multi-million dollar Performing Arts Center. The investment is expected to pay off in the classroom.

San Dieguito Academy’s new Performing Arts Complex has indoor and outdoor performance spaces, soundproof practice rooms and digital recording studios. It took six years to raise $8 million from state grants and loans, and $500,000 were raised locally.

Principal Tim Hornig says students do better in school if they are offered creative outlets.

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“Anything that a student can find an interest in is going to make their time more valuable at the school,” he said. “So whether it’s athletics or student government, or it’s theater, when kids find a common interest with other students, they tend to be more successful in and out of the classroom. “

Up until now, students had to use the school cafeteria to practice and perform.

The new “black box” style theater was designed by John Fisher, who designed a theater for the La Jolla Playhouse.

Education

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.