A crowd of about 200 community members got the first look and tour of the new Ricardo Campero Performing Arts Theater on the campus of Central Valley High School Thursday afternoon and all seemed greatly impressed what $9 million bought.
A prelude to the 4 p.m. grand opening ceremony was a small music ensemble of Ceres staff members playing Christmas songs outside the 5,000-square-foot black-box theater.
The building will serve as a district-wide performance venue for CUSD’s band, choir and drama students for all 20 schools, offering a floor-level stage and 400 retractable seating that can be configured to accommodate different needs. It will also be available for community use when not being used by students.
“This is a great accomplishment for our school, our school community and the Ceres community as a whole,” CUSD Board President Lourdes Perez told the crowd. “We really are hoping that this can be something greater than just the current school populations’ but for the community as well and future generations to come.”
She added that the facility is intended to facilitate “creative ways of learning” as students build academic excellence.
Representatives of elected officials including Rep. John Duarte and state Assemblyman Juan Alanis stopped by to offer accolades. Destiny Suarez, a staff member in state Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil’s office, offered her congratulations and noted that Campero was her flute teacher while she was in elementary school.
“And she came out okay!” Mr. Campero replied to laughter.
“It’s so great to see so many support for this,” said Suarez. “As also a previous performing arts student this is what builds our students’ future so thank you for providing a safe space for them to excel and build their careers. And that you for naming it after a wonderful person who I get to talk about all the time.”
Campero retired in 2018 after a 32-year career helping students become musicians, but continues to be involved with district programs and events.
“He didn’t really retire though,” said CUSD Supt. Denise Wickham, “because if you’re around you see him all over the place. He attends our graduations. He’s still very much involved in our district. He oversees our summer GATE Academy and he’s just a part of Ceres and we are so thankful for his service and he continues to volunteer countless hours to our district.”
Campero had a chance to speak and noted he was happy to see his family from Patterson in attendance.
He said his tenure in Ceres began “almost as a mistake,” explaining how it started after he was contacted by music teacher Candy Chamberlain during his sabbatical from teaching and she asked if he could teach “a few months.” Campero was admitted he was hesitant at first.
“I really didn’t want to. I just really needed to work on myself and right around December/January she called (and said) they were losing their music teacher at Ceres High School. I came down for an interview in January only to find out my wife was pregnant. And I said, ‘I better go get a job somewhere.’ It was a strenuous two-hour interview which asked a lot of questions … they could ask back then but not anymore. They made me sing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and then finally as the principal said, ‘If we were to take you into the band room and have you pick an instrument to play which one would you pick?’ And I just said, ‘Pick one and I’ll play it for you.’ And that was it.”
He got a quick call back offering the job.
Campero said he is grateful for having his name attached to the building and said it was the happiest day when he learned the center was on the district’s drawing board.
The facility broke ground in July 2021 with hopes of being completed a year ago but supply chain issues interrupted delayed plans.
The center will be ready for use once students come back from winter break in January.
After the ribbon was cut, the crowd filed into the lobby and was greeted with the smell of new carpet as they made their way into the large darkened theater. It took a while for some to get the brand-new seats unlocked to recline from their upright position before brief remarks by Mayor Javier Lopez and Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra.
Dr. Kristi Britton, CUSD’s assistant superintendent of Business Services, put Campero on the spot by asking him to put on the first-ever performance inside the theater so he led the crowd in a round of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”
A video produced by the Ceres Unified School District multi-media team was projected onto the large sheet of scrim, a fabric that appears opaque when lit from behind. The video featured drama students from both Ceres and Central Valley high schools showing off the digs.
Students led tours of the facility, including the control room, dressing rooms, behind stage area where roll-up doors are and balconies where spotlights are situated. One feature that wasn’t ready was the elevator.
Also on hand were representatives of builders J.L. Bray Construction, architect Gary Mallory and Ken Hines, CUSD’s Director of Maintenance, Facilities and Transportation who Britton said “pushed and pushed and pushed to make sure that this building is available for all us today with my deadline.”
