Oak Bluffs public safety officials have backed a plan for the regional high school building project that would limit occupancy of the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center to just 49 people at a time, effectively closing the auditorium for two years beginning next summer.
“It’s a preliminary plan [for] what the capacity of the performing arts center would be, given the nature of the construction and demolition that’s about to take place,” project coordinator Sam Hart told the high school committee Monday night.
“There is a scenario where we could potentially hold 300, but that would require some emergency egress and some other measures taken that might delay and potentially delay the construction and add cost,” Mr. Hart said.
With 791 seats, the performing arts center is the largest indoor venue on the Vineyard, hosting major events throughout the year. Planners have been meeting with the school in recent months to consider if the stage could be used during construction.
A new two-story classroom wing is scheduled to be built in front of the performing arts center starting next July, followed by a two-level lobby connecting the buildings. The entrance to the theatre will be moved to the upper level of the lobby.
Music department head Abigail Chandler, joined by music teacher Stephanie Aurenz and performing arts center director Charlie Esposito, asked the school committee Monday to support the 300-person scenario for the sake of the Vineyard’s music and theater students.
“The proposed 49-person capacity would throttle these programs Islandwide,” Ms. Chandler said, reading from a statement.
“The beginning strings and band concerts often have close to 100 students on stage at a time. These programs directly feed into the strings and band program at the high school [and] there isn’t another venue on the Island that can accommodate everyone,” she said.
Amy Houghton, who serves on both the high school committee and the school building committee, said the occupancy limit reflects the Oak Bluffs fire chief and building commissioner’s initial concerns about public safety during construction.
“The information … just came to the building committee this week, and there is much more to be discussed,” Ms. Houghton said.
The project’s professional team is holding a meeting this week with Martha’s Vineyard Commission staff, high school principal Bryan Lombardi, superintendent of schools Jaime Curley and representatives from the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, she said.
“[They will] identify those areas that we really need to be cognizant of, if we’re going to allow the public to come into the building,” Ms. Houghton said.
“We hope that there will be opportunities to keep the PAC open, but we also need to recognize that adding [egresses] and delaying the construction really poses a significant cost on the project,” she said.
Also Monday, Ms. Curley announced the upcoming departure of Island school business administrator Mark Friedman, who will leave in a month to become the director of business and finance for Middleborough Public Schools.
Mr. Friedman, who grew up in Oak Bluffs, has worked in the school system for 17 years, starting in 2009 as accounts manager for the high school and taking on the district job in 2020, Ms. Curley said.
Unlike his job on the Vineyard, Mr. Friedman’s new position will be wholly within a single municipality.
Middleborough has about 2,700 students in its five schools, compared to the Vineyard’s 2,062 across all six towns.