New Performing Arts Center Opens to Ecstatic Students

Sebastian Bingaman, Staff Reporter

Photo by: Matthew Tobar

LEE High School recently finished construction on a new Performing Arts Center. An estimated $30,500,000 was spent on the new addition to the LEE campus, with construction starting in May 2018 and ending in October 2020.

The new center includes a state-of-the-art theater with 750 seat capacity featuring a control booth, orchestra pit, dressing rooms, prop rooms and other facilities. The building also contains new dance studios, rehearsal spaces, and a new classroom for the NESA creative writing department.

The new building is located next to, and connecting to, existing fine arts facilities, which will receive minor upgrades as well. “Our new Performing Arts Center will enhance the learning experience for so many of our students who are enrolled in the wide range of LEE and NESA fine arts classes that we offer,” said Mr. David Dretke, Assistant Principal. 

The LEE drill team was the first group on campus to receive access to the building in October, 2020, and other programs followed soon after. “For being in the studio for a short amount of time we have learned so much and have put our blood, sweat, and tears into each thing we do within our new home. I’m very fortunate for my senior year not only being a Royal Ruby, but being able to practice in that studio,” said Margarita Salazar (12). The PAC will likely become an important space, and even a second home for many students at LEE.