Daily Sitka Sentinel

Arts Camp Offers No-Fee PAC Contract

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Sitka Fine Arts Camp Director Roger Schmidt says his board hopes that forgoing the school district’s payments to operate the Performing Arts Center will not only keep the building open but save teaching jobs in Sitka schools.
    “With the budget crisis our school district is facing it was time for us to figure out how we could help with solutions,” Schmidt said. “We hope that we can save two teachers’ jobs by taking on the financial obligations and continue what we’ve been doing.”
    The school district pays $112,000 per year for the camp to operate the building, including covering the cost of a technical director and custodial staff, and a part-time person to schedule and market events. The camp also provides a house manager and organizes ushers for shows.
    Schmidt said the idea for taking this action came up in the context of state, city and school budget discussions. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has proposed cutting school funding by 25 percent, and eliminating the school bond reimbursement program, which will hit both city and school budgets.
    “Our board was following budget meetings and realized how deeply in trouble the school district was,” Schmidt said. “We felt it is our mission to provide the highest quality arts opportunities for kids. We understand that the PAC is an essential tool in our ability to do that, whether in the schools or in summer.”

The Performing Arts Center is pictured this morning. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

    The city owns all school district buildings, including the PAC, which was built as an addition to the high school. The cost of operating the building is borne by the school district which gets its money from the city and state.
    The schools use the building for assemblies, student music concerts, theater performances, teacher in-service programs and other school-related activities. But a great part of the building use is by non-school organizations that pay to use it for concerts, dance recitals, plays and other performance events.
    The Sitka Fine Arts Camp uses the auditorium in the summer for Art Share events and final performances of middle school, high school, jazz and dance camps. The SFAC musical theater camp stages a full Broadway musical play in the PAC every summer.
    “It’s a really busy space,” Schmidt said. “There’s so much community use, all supporting the arts.”
    SFAC has made a proposal in which it would keep the $20,000 to $30,000 in annual revenue generated by the PAC, which now goes to the school district, but the arts organization would not charge anything for managing the building.
    The school district estimates the cost of the PAC at $240,000 per year. The bond costs are in the city budget and covered by a portion of the city sales tax proceeds.
    The broad concept of SFAC’s proposal is the camp would forgo the $112,000 it now charges to manage the building, and the school district would continue to use the building for school functions without charge. The school district would continue to cover the cost of heat and utilities, which are joined with the high school systems.
    “The PAC is not a separate building from the high school – like the gym, the library and any other space in the high school,” Schmidt said. “There’s no way to separate utility costs and insurance costs out.”
    The proposal is in the early stages, but Schmidt has already had one meeting on the concept with Deputy Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz and City Administrator Keith Brady.
    Schmidt said the proposal will not be a money-maker for the camp but, he pointed out, neither was the idea of taking over the Sheldon Jackson campus.
    “It’s our mission to make sure kids get on that stage,” he said. “It’s a big reach for us in our budget. It’s going to be really challenging. We’re hoping the community members will step up and help us keep the PAC running. We’re hoping with this concept we’ll be able to keep the lights on and keep the building going.”
    Schmidt said he and the board see keeping the PAC open as part of its mission of creating arts opportunities, and central to Sitka’s identity as an arts community.
    “We believe this is a win-win for all,” he said. “This allows the school district to save two teachers’ jobs and still keep the PAC open for all our school kids to continue to use.”
    Eisenbeisz said Tuesday that the idea is worth considering, since it would result in savings.
    Assembly members Richard Wein added today, “The devil’s in the details and I’d be happy to review the terms and conditions. And anything’s possible.”
    Schmidt said SFAC is responding to a crisis, like the rest of the community.
    “Dunleavy is like a terrible storm that’s hit our community,” Schmidt said. “We want to get through this hard time and get back as quickly as possible to educating our children and rebuilding our community.”