We are asking that Alonso’s existing auditorium be converted into classrooms, practice rooms, small ensemble rehearsal rooms, and storage space similar to what was done at Newsome HS to support our large and growing performing arts programs.    

Over 650 students attend class in Alonso’s performing arts building each day, plus an additional 60-90+ students in the years when we are able to offer piano, guitar, AP Music Theory, and Access Music classes. Alonso’s Performing Arts programs have outgrown our current facilities, and we strongly believe that the requested expansion would expand the opportunities we are able to offer our students and address the following chronic concerns with our current auditorium and Band, Choir, Dance, Orchestra, and Theatre facilities:

Auditorium Capacity:

• Audience Capacity: Alonso’s existing auditorium has seats for 580 people, but our Band, Choir, and Orchestra concert 
        audiences regularly exceed that number. As a result, many parents and family members are left standing during
        performances because there are not enough seats to accommodate our audience. In some cases, our band
        program has had to turn away families and guests from concerts due to lack of space, and our Ascent dance team
        and Eurhythmics classes are currently unable to perform with the band for annual concerts due to a lack of seating,
        causing a division between the two groups. A year ago, we had to move our joint high school and middle school
        choir to Sickles High School’s auditorium because of a lack of adequate space and seating in Alonso’s. This
        problem has gotten progressively worse the last several years as our performing arts programs have grown.
•  Stage Capacity: Alonso’s current stage does not provide enough space to comfortably and safely seat our concert bands and symphony orchestra, which include up to 85 students each. In order to fit all students in those ensembles on stage, the outer edges of our chair rows are positioned very close to the edge of the stage, leaving little to no room for students and staff to move safely into and out of the ensembles and along the front of the stage.  This is a safety risk when students and staff move onto and off of the stage. In order to stage our choral-orchestral performances, which often involve 120+ musicians, choir risers must be set up at the floor level with our symphony orchestra onstage, further reducing the available audience seating.

Classroom Capacity:

• Ascent Dance Team & Eurhythmics classes: Our 68-student Ascent dance team and Eurhythmics class, which is one of the most competitively successful in the district and state, does not have a dedicated classroom that fits the class and is usually forced to rehearse outside since all enrolled students cannot safely fit in Alonso’s band room. This presents safety and supervision concerns, and often forces Eurhythmics instruction and Ascent rehearsals to be cancelled when there is inclement weather or testing on campus.
• Band: Alonso’s Band program has grown to 278 students this year, and our largest band class currently consists of 82 students. We have recently had up to 99 students enrolled in individual band classes. With classes that large, Alonso’s band room becomes difficult for students and staff to navigate safely during instruction, as there is very limited walking and maneuvering space. Additional space is taken up by equipment and instruments due to inadequate storage space in our building, which exacerbates the issue and the abovementioned overcrowding and safety concerns. Additionally, Alonso’s marching band, which enrolls 260 students and is one of the largest in the district, cannot rehearse together in the band room because the space cannot physically accommodate the entire ensemble. Our marching band must utilize either the gymnasium or auditorium for these rehearsals; however, access to these facilities is not guaranteed, as they are also needed by other programs and activities.
• Choir & Orchestra: Alonso’s Choir program has doubled in size over the last two years, and our Orchestra program has grown by 10% this year. Due to that growth and to limited classroom space, some of our choir and orchestra classes face crowding problems, especially when we combine groups for large-group rehearsals and performances.
• Theatre: Our internationally award-winning Theatre program is limited by the size of Alonso’s stage, lack of backstage wing space, and small theatre tech workshop, which are not suited to the caliber of Alonso’s drama and musical theatre productions or the size of our technical theatre program. Our Theatre program regularly has to use our band and orchestra classrooms as changing rooms during productions because the changing rooms built into the building are far too small for the size of the program and shows’ casts. That of course, forces us to cancel after-school activities that would normally be scheduled for Alonso’s music programs those days, depriving students of learning and enrichment opportunities.

Instructional Limitations and Disruption:

Alonso’s lack of practice rooms and small-ensemble rehearsal rooms limits our Band, Choir, Eurhythmics, Orchestra and Theatre classes from planning small group instruction, holding regular sectional rehearsals during class time, or bringing in outside clinicians to enrich instruction due to a lack of space for such groups to meet.

When such small-group instruction can be scheduled, it has to be scheduled carefully around other classes and done in hallways or outdoors. This disrupts other arts and general education classes, and makes such instruction vulnerable to cancellation in case of inclement weather. The impact of this cannot be overstated; this issue disrupts performing arts and general education instruction every single day, often severely and for several classes at a time.

Storage Space:

• Ascent Dance Team & Eurhythmics classes: Alonso’s “Ascent” dance team and Eurhythmics classes cannot fit the majority of their equipment in our band room or in any other room on our campus, so they are forced to store their equipment in different locations across campus. This has caused instructional materials and equipment to be tampered with, destroyed, and lost. Furthermore, with Ascent’s equipment being stored across campus, this has caused a divide with the team as they are no longer grouping and around Alonso’s band - which is the core group that they are part of. Additionally, the Eurhythmics equipment bags that can be stored in our band room have very little space, which causes a loss of instructional time getting them out and has caused student injuries.
• Band: As Alonso’s band program continues to grow, we need additional instruments and equipment to adequately support our students. However, the limited size and storage space in the band room means that all instruments cannot fit into the assigned cabinets. This leads to safety issues: Tripping hazards, instruments falling out of the overstuffed cabinets, and the like. Adding the necessary equipment further reduces the already limited floor and storage space, making it increasingly difficult to safely accommodate the growing program.
• Choir & Orchestra: Due to the growth of Alonso’s Choir and Orchestra programs, we currently lack adequate storage space for school- and student-owned orchestra instruments, concert uniforms, and our choir and orchestra music libraries. This causes crowding and student safety concerns in the classroom similar to those faced by our band program - tripping hazards and loss of usable classroom space due to instruments that overflow beyond what our storage racks can hold -  and has caused instruments, materials, and uniform inventory to be damaged.
• Theatre: The lack of storage space in Alonso’s auditorium and in our performing arts building overall has forced Alonso’s Theatre program to throw away tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of sets, equipment, and costumes that could otherwise have been kept and reused if adequate storage space were available.

In conclusion, we ask the Hillsborough County School Board to approve the proposed expansion of Alonso High School, including constructing a larger auditorium like the one at Newsome HS, and converting our current auditorium into practice rooms, storage space, and a dance classroom or studio. A larger auditorium and the addition of dedicated practice, small-ensemble rehearsal, and storage rooms will significantly expand the opportunities we can offer our Performing Arts students, allow for more varied and specialized instruction, and resolve the safety and supervision concerns presented by our current facilities’ limitations.

Please sign our petition to show your support to our Hillsborough County School Board to ensure this project is funded ASAP.  

Thank you!