Marietta High School dance students practice under school stairwells, in hallways and in the school’s rotunda. With no studio, they share class space with the wrestling team.
Dance teacher Chiazor Nwabude said her 242 students move portable ballet barres and stereo equipment into the wrestling room and tug wrestling mats to the side of the room before each class.
The space crunch for dance and other arts students at the school could be eased by plans for an 800-seat theater and larger band room at the nearly 2,000-student high school. A theater was supposed to be included when the $57 million school was built 10 years ago, but it was scuttled because of budget overruns at the time.
Now Marietta City Schools has revived the idea, proposing an $8.6 million auditorium and band room addition. City residents can learn details and weigh in at a forum at 7 p.m. Thursday at the school. A second community meeting is planned for the fall, before the school board decides whether to move ahead.
Marietta Schools Board Chair Irene Berens worked with an eight-member committee of school and community members who made recommendations on the project. It would provide performance space for various arts groups and the larger band room would free up space. Dance students, for instance, would move to a studio in the current band room.
Berens said funding hasn't been determined, but money could come from a special purpose local option sales, or SPLOST, though that would probably not go to voters until 2013. Another option is to combine money from the school system's building fund with a bond.
“The timing seems right now, with the economy turning around and while finance and constructions costs are low,” Berens said.
Marietta Schools Superintendent Emily Lembeck said the city system has done better financially than other districts during a tough economy, but will have to find an outside funding stream to build an auditorium at Marietta High. She added that community support is crucial for the project's success.
Dan Valentine, whose daughter is a junior at the school, said the project isn’t high on the community radar screen yet and public opinion will probably be decided on dollars and cents.
“Would we like to have a theater at the school, no doubt it would be a plus,” Valentine said. “I think people will look at it from an economic view. Is this the time to saddle people with more debt?”
David DuBose, Marietta High’s band director and arts department chair, said the project would benefit band, drama and chorus groups which are always juggling to find room to rehearse and perform.
The band has grown 500 percent in the last five years, DuBose said, and more students have signed up for marching band next year than the band room can hold.
“When we practiced this year, the hall was lined with instrument cases because we didn’t have space in the band room,” he said.
Principal Leigh Colburn said the school’s 2,100-seat gymnasium is beautiful, but was built for basketball and not performing arts. She said a smaller auditorium would work better for school system administrative meetings, performance space for the high school and other city schools, and community events and meetings.
“We are the only high school in the county without an auditorium,” Colburn said. “We are 10 years overdue for one.”
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