Pleasant Valley High School is known for its motto “Committed to Excellence”, which is shown in the academics and extracurricular activities offered. Compared to surrounding schools, PV facilities are lacking in one section: the performing arts.
When Pleasant Valley was built, it was meant to provide schooling to a far smaller number of students. However, the population of the district grew rapidly. What used to be a small school for students in the countryside is now a bustling school of 1600 students.
This large, unexpected growth is shown in the layout of our building. The building has expanded as necessary, with the space available. However, the performing arts department has not received the same treatment. The theater was constructed when the school was still small, and numbers reflect this, as the theater only seats around 500 people. Despite the growth, it has not received any meaningful updates, and the student population has vastly outgrown it.
For sophomore Maeli Sanchez, funding the arts allows both the school and department to flourish. “I think our theatre department is good talent-wise, but I think what’s different about PV than other schools is the fact that it’s not as big,” said Sanchez. “I feel like a lot of schools around the Quad Cities have way bigger theatre departments because their school cares about funding the arts, so they have a larger variety of people taking part.” This change helps build a large, driven community of students.
With the lack of funding, though, the theatre department remains stagnant. “At PV, on the other hand, it’s mostly just the same people, and if I’m being honest, the school does not care about the theatre department as much as other schools,” noted Sanchez.
The new building expansion has also further neglected the theater department. “The new hallway split our set shop and took a good chunk of it. I think that we will most likely have storage problems in the future, as we did with ‘Anything Goes,’” shared sophomore Emily Parker. This lack of forethought for the needs of the theater department has led to discouragement.
As an effort to manage Pleasant Valley’s growing population, the district has included a multistep plan to expand facilities. The last step is replacing the ABC gym with a performing arts center. “I think it would be good for the school to have a performing arts center because it will make more people want to be a part of it instead of chickening out because not a lot of people do it and it’s not considered popular.” Sanchez believes there is a correlation between the lack of funding for a performing arts center and the hesitancy of people to join theater and performing arts.
Once a performing arts center is constructed at Pleasant Valley, it will finally be on par with the surrounding schools. Although most current students will never see the construction, the effects will be noticed by the next generation of musicians, actors, and all students alike.
