‘Music to my ears’: Ceres Unified starts construction on first performing arts center
After 32 years teaching music to Ceres students, Ric Campero was told when he retired in 2018 that the district planned to build its first performing arts center.
“This was music to my ears,” he said at a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning.
Though he didn’t know it those few years ago, the venue would be named after him, in honor of his work in the Ceres Unified School District. He taught at Ceres High and multiple elementary schools.
District leaders anticipate construction of the Ricardo Campero Performing Arts Center to be complete by January 2023.
The black-box theater will be at Central Valley High School, attached to the building that houses the band and choir rooms. It will be open to the entire district, and community members may request to use the space for events, said Dan Pangrazio, assistant superintendent of business services.
The venue will be 5,000 square feet, with 400 retractable seats that can pull back to create customized spaces for different events. A digital backdrop will allow productions to use either still or moving digital scenery, Pangrazio said.
The building has been many years in the making. It was delayed by about a year due to pandemic uncertainties, he said. The facility’s maximum guaranteed price, to be paid out of capital facility funds, is $9.3 million, said district spokeswoman Beth Parker Jimenez.
Without a theater, students have performed in gyms, cafeterias and whatever other spaces were available, Jimenez said.
A brass quintet featuring three of Campero’s former students, a colleague and a Modesto City Schools teacher performed at the groundbreaking. A group of third- through sixth-grade students, some wearing red and white “Cat in the Hat” hats, sang a number from the musical “Seussical.”
Campero said the performances reminded him of when his bands would play for groundbreakings at grocery stores, a 99 Cents store and the Costco in Turlock. His most memorable groundbreaking was in 2004 when the Ceres High School Jazz Band played at the launch of the Gallo Center for the Arts, he said.
“Our school was known as the go-to band for such events,” Campero said.
The new theater demonstrates the district’s support for arts education. Campero considers performing arts not as extracurricular, but as part of curriculum alongside subjects like history.
Campero’s family, colleagues, friends and former students came to the groundbreaking. Melinda Campero, Ric’s daughter, said the event was like a big family reunion.
The creation of the performance space “culminates my life,” he said.
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
