Federal Way School District bond issue

The Federal Way Coalition of the Performing Arts is excited and enthusiastic about the upcoming Federal Way School District bond issue. We will be voting in early February, but it's important to make everyone aware of what is included. So many of our school facilities are over 30 years old, and it makes sense to replace them with updated versions. Twenty years was the expectation when they were built. But of special importance to us is the inclusion of a large performance hall in the bond.

Yes, we are the only school district in south sound without a real performance hall. All of the surrounding districts, Auburn, Highline, and even Sumner have large 800 to 1100 seat theaters that they also utilize as rental facilities. Kent's are just a little smaller, but still available for rental. . Rentals help greatly with maintenance and operation costs. Auburn has so many activities in their largest hall, (they now have three) they sometimes have three events scheduled a day. They rent it over 50% of the time, and would-be users often can't schedule a date even a year in advance. With all of the school districts, high school students' activities have priority.

A school district - city partnership would be wonderful. A terrific example is in Chandler, Arizona, where they share ownership. The schools utilize it weekdays for classes, concerts and dramatic offerings, and the city presents guest artist concerts and other entertainment on weekends (probably not every weekend). But even better, they have a 1500 seat facility with two sections of 350 and 200 seats, respectively, that are on turntables and rotate to different stages. Three events could actually happen at once, if the total 1500 seats weren't needed. Wouldn't that be a fabulous idea for here?

For years, we have envisioned a partnership between the city and school district, but the city council has had other priorities. The school district is definitely open to discussions with any partnership possibilities. Unfortunately, none of our eight performing groups in Federal Way are in any position to own anything unless some entity donates a huge chunk of change. As non-profits, they are constantly organizing fundraisers and grant writing just to operate. Ticket sales don't begin to cover costs of a performance. The Federal Way Chorale, Symphony, Harmony Kings Chorus and Jet Cities Chorus have had to make due in churches or rent Auburn Performing Arts Center, if they could get a date. That's why we - The Federal Way Coalition of the Performing Arts to which eight groups belong - have for many years promoted the idea of a large enough facility here to accommodate us as well as the school audiences. The facility could also be a presenting one, if it was large enough, bringing in outside talent we would otherwise not be able to bring to Federal Way. A good model is Auburn Arts Commission's "Bravo" series of outside productions and guest artists. Auburn PAC is the only one large enough to accommodate music competitions and dance schools. It is also home to the Auburn Symphony Orchestra and Evergreen City Ballet, all helping to pay for the operation, remember.

For the 900-1000 seat hall, we anticipate some fundraising after the bond passes, for any enhancements that might not be included. We are prepared to assist in that, if necessary.

In an ideal world, we would have large performance halls at all our high schools, at least. We are so far behind, it is exciting to us that we're even talking about it, finally. We urge everyone in the school district's boundaries to educate themselves on this bond, and vote in February!

Joann Piquette
President
Federal Way Coalition of the Performing Arts.