The Contra Costa School of Performing Arts, a charter school established in 2016 in Walnut Creek, California, for grades 6 to 12, is closing in June.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the 42,000-square-foot facility has capacity for 725 students, but its highest enrollment, in 2018-19, was just 471. By last year, that figure had declined to 361.
“You can absolutely see our enrollment suffered just like everyone else’s did,” says Heather Vega, chair of the school’s governing board. “As a public school, enrollment is necessary for us to be financially viable, and we are not at a level where we could make the finances work for us.”
The school’s staff directory lists 31 employees, including instructors in technical theater, dance and instrumental music, all of whom will lose their jobs.
The 4.5-acre property is now for sale with a listing price of $16,975,000.
Mel Martinez, associate director of the school’s theater program, described the school as a safe space for students who are queer, Hispanic or unorthodox.
“(For) a lot of them, this is the place where they can come and really be themselves and be called by their preferred pronouns and their preferred names,” she said.
Remaining schools in the region dedicated to the performing arts include Oakland School for the Arts, East Bay Arts High School in San Lorenzo, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, Creative Arts Charter School in San Francisco, and the private San Francisco High School of the Arts.
