GUHSD, City of El Cajon to Move Forward with ECPAC Partnership

The possibility of the Grossmont Union High School District using the closed East County Performing Arts Center for school-sponsored performances and events is becoming more of a reality.

On Tuesday, the El Cajon City Council voted unanimously to begin formal discussions with the district for a potential partnership to use ECPAC, and floated the idea of building a multi-use events center adjacent to the more than 1,100-capacity facility.

“I’m open to re-opening this. We need to fix the roof and take care of ADA issues," said El Cajon city councilmember Gary Kendrick, as reported by East County Magazine. “I spoke with Priscilla Schreiber (current GUHSD board member). The topic of ECPAC came up. Her idea is for the district to build a multi-use facility in front of the performing arts center rather than 10 multi-use facilities on each campus.”

School board members addressed the issue at their meeting last week. It was said then that board president Jim Kelly and boardmember Jim Stieringer would be part of a committee that will meet with El Cajon city officials to discuss the possible partnership.

The city council voted in favor of appointing Kendrick and Pro-Tem Mayor Bill Wells as representatives for the city in the partnership.

ECPAC was first opened in 1977 and was operated by the Grossmont-Cuyamaca College District. In 1995, it was transferred to the City of El Cajon, but was closed in 2010 due to various maintenance issues.

The city's plan to reopen ECPAC in 2011 was halted because of safety issues such as a hole in the roof and various ADA non-compliance.

In a U-T San Diego report, Wells said of the project: "We are looking at reopening ECPAC, in a timely manner, and in a way most cost effective, while being sensitive to taxpayers' dollars... (GUHSD) is planning to spend many millions of dollars building 10 performing arts centers, why not let them use ours? We can have a public/public partnership that could save taxpayers millions of dollars. If we can save money, I see no reason we shouldn't try."

Many proponents of the plan believe that ECPAC could also be utilized by the district for many large scale events, such as graduations and meetings.

Kendrick said that regardless of the involvement from the school district, the city plans on opening the venue at some point, according to U-T San Diego.

However, the proposed project is not without its detractors.

La Mesa native Ray Lutz, head of the Save ECPAC Foundation, said partnering with the district would have no benefit for the center, as it would not "bring new faces to El Cajon."

"We explored this to some extent about a year ago, and it did not seem to make much sense, either for the city or for the school district," U-T San Diego reported Lutz telling the council. "This is a waste of your time.

"This is a fixture in the community," Lutz added. "This is like a park with a big fence around it."

Kendrick told East County Magazine after the meeting that “the school district would pay for the facility with the bond money. If necessary, the city could legally transfer ownership of the multi-use facility (though not ECPAC) to the school district to enable bond monies to be used “for the public good.”