The Show Must Go On

Calaveras County, CA — Calaveras Unified School District voted 4 to 1 to begin work on the site of the 500 seat performing arts center. 

The district had planned to spend $7.7 million, but had to cut its budget down to $5.4 million due to poor economy. They were able to do that by taking out some parts of the building including some dressing rooms and a catwalk. Instead they will buy less expensive portable buildings.  Even after doing that the district was nearly $500 thousand dollars short of its budget, so they did some refinancing of previous debt at a lower interest rate and more time to pay off that debt.

Most of the money comes from a voter approved bond and the state is kicking in more than a million dollars in funding.

Calaveras Unified Superintendent, Mark Campbell says there is risk involved since the economic woes of the state could delay or even cancel its contribution. Also, he says delays could cause construction cost to go up.

However, Campbell says if they didn’t vote to move forward the district would have missed a state deadline and ultimately lost that state funding.