The school board unanimously approved the submission of two applications for Proposition 51 Career Technical Education (CTE) Facilities Grant funding for Benicia High School’s Performing Arts Building (PAB) at its Thursday meeting.

Proposition 51 was approved by California voters in the 2016 election to provide $9 billion in bond funding which in turn would provide construction and renovation of K-12 and community college facilities throughout the state. If the applications are approved, Benicia Unified School District could receive $3 million which the district would have to match either through Measure S funds or other facility funds.

Benicia High has been expanding its CTE program through such courses as Construction and Building Trades 1 and intro to medical careers. Adding to this, Benicia High Principal Brianna Kleinschmidt said, was that dance teacher Samantha Sanchez earned her CTE credential over the summer.

“What that meant was that our long-standing program of dance within our performing arts department is able to now be a CTE pathway,” Kleinschmidt said. “For our students who are currently and in the future will be taking our dance courses, Dance 1 and Dance 2, they will be fulfilling a pathway. It’s actually a pathway that last month was named one of the top six sectors for growth for young adults who are either coming right out of high school or a two-year college to have a good starting, paying job.”

As dance is now part of the CTE pathway, the PAB is now considered a CTE facility. This has furthered the need for the building to be modernized and updated to repair safety concerns.
Proposition 51 does include modernization of designated CTE facilities and equipment for comprehensive high schools. The application is due Nov. 29.

“We would be looking at a grant for new construction and a grant for modernization,” Kleinschmidt said. “They require that those be separate, so any additional square footage would be considered new construction and any work to existing square footage would be considered modernization.”

The PAB began construction in 1979 and became open to students in 1981, according to the 1982 Benicia High yearbook. Kleinschmidt said much of the building has retained its original construction, including the drama classroom, lighting and other fixtures. Benicia High also had around 800 students when the building opened, Kleinschmidt said, but its student population has doubled since.

Kleinschmidt noted that renovation has been minimal in the last 35 years. The auditorium seating was refurbished in 1999, and some changes were made in 2004 to make the facility more compliant to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Other than that, it has not been brought up to industry standards or modernizations of what you might see in other facilities, including other school facilities,” she said.

The current PAB has a number of concerns, including issues with wiring and lighting, and a leaking roof. Kleinschmidt said there is also a need to expand the space to house all performing arts programs, including drama, band and dance.

“This really provides the opportunity to upgrade those items as needed,” she said, “hopefully even enlarge those spaces so that when we have a dance class of more than 26 students, they can all fit on the stage at once.”

According to Kleinschmidt, the opportunity is “no risk” because it is in the application stages.

“We would still have the opportunity to accept or not accept that, based on the ability to match those funds and where they might come from,” she said.

Trustee Diane Ferrucci asked Measure S Bond Director Roxanne Egan if the district could say no to one of the grants if the requests were approved but the Proposition 51 money did not match the total of the two grants.

“Are they so tied together that they could not be separated?” Ferrucci asked.

“We have a consultant who advises us on these things, and I don’t have the exact information on that,” Egan said. “It’s something I need to check in on a little more, but tonight all we would be deciding is, ‘Yes, can we apply for this grant?’ which opens up doors that would open up opportunities should the monies arrive. Between now and then, I certainly can get more information.”

All five trustees approved the application requests.

In other matters, the final round of school site plans was presented by Mary Farmar Elementary Principal Wendy Smith and Matthew Turner Elementary Principal Stephen Slater and were unanimously approved by the board. Superintendent Dr. Charles Young also highlighted Robert Semple Elementary’s celebration of Kindness Week, which began with a choreographed dance on the blacktop that students performed for parents who were arriving at school that morning. Semple’s Student Council performed a segment of the dance again for the board trustees at Thursday’s meeting.

The board will next meet on Thursday, Dec. 14.