East Valley Bond Will Be Good For The Band; Renovation Begins

East Valley High School band director Cal Anderson has an extra chore to finish in the next few weeks - pack up everything in his cramped music classroom, office and storage space.

His deadline is June 16, the day a demolition crew is scheduled to go to work.

The music and drama area at East Valley High School will undergo a $600,000 renovation this summer, gaining enough room for another classroom, as well as a 100-seat theater.

Anderson rattles off the limitations of the current configuration.

“Right now, that’s our practice area,” he says, with a nod toward one end of his congested office.

But the biggest problem is that he and orchestra director Marla Pflanz share the classroom.

“When I have to move my kids, she can’t have class,” Anderson said.

With the new space, the music teachers will be able to offer classes at the same time.

“We’re not getting some fluffy, use-it-once-every-two-weeks project. This is instructional space that will be used four, five, six times a day,” Anderson said.

The small theater will be used for choir, drama classes, as well as for guest speakers or other presentations with a small audience.

The department also will gain extra practice rooms and better designed storage space.

Other work at the high school this summer includes upgrades of the wood and metal shops and work on the tennis courts and track. These projects will complete the high school’s share of the bond issue voters passed in 1996. Last summer, science lab space was added to the school.

In all, $1.091 million will have gone into the high school through bond issue projects.

, DataTimes