HISTORY AND MISSION

Established in 1978, under the leadership of founding principal Florence Johnson and project resource teacher Ole Kittleson, the School of Creative and Performing Arts opened as a school-within-a school on the Roosevelt Middle School Campus.  As a result of a court mandate, SCPA was one of San Diego Unified School District’s first magnet schools created to facilitate voluntary integration.  SCPA first opened with 1 administrator, 17 teachers, 1 counselor, 17 support staff and 180 students in grades 4, 5, and 6.  46 seventh grade students were added in the spring semester with 8th grade added the following year.  These 8th grade students became the first graduating class of SCPA.  In the Fall of 1982, SCPA relocated to the former Mabel E. O’Farrell site in Southeast San Diego and became known as the O’Farrell School of Creative and Performing Arts.  As the program grew in popularity, it became inevitable that SCPA would require a new facility to meet the demands of this unique and successful new school. In the Fall of 1990, SCPA moved to its new, permanent site and became known as the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts.

SCPA today occupies a 12 million dollar facility in southeast San Diego (Paradise Hills) that maintains a fully equipped 500 seat theater, a 100 seat black box, box office, 6 dance studios, TV studio/video recording booth, art and music rooms, library, computer labs as well as traditional academic classrooms and science labs.  The school now boasts 1500 students, an administrative team of 4, 72 teachers, 4 counselors and a support staff of 70.  The school offers annually an artistic season consisting of dance, choral and instrumental concerts, an art exhibition, and musical theatre and dramatic productions presented in both the Florence Johnson Grand Theatre and the Ole Kittleson Little Theatre.

• Promote a climate of learning where all students and staff have the opportunity to develop their full potential in both the arts and academics by fostering personal growth and recognizing and providing for individual differences and learning styles.
• Prepare students to be life-long learners, well-adjusted, responsible and productive members of the community through relevant curricula and experiences.
• Create a campus climate of collegiality, trust, respect, shared decision-making and open experiences.
• Incorporate community resources into the curriculum, encourage student involvement in the community and parent involvement in the school.
• Provide staff and students with a variety of technologies to acquire information and enhance their learning and understanding.
• Expose staff and students to a rich variety of ethnic and cultural experiences.
• Hold all stakeholders (staff, students, parents and community) accountable for student achievement.