School year underway without shuttered School of Performing Arts
WALNUT CREEK, CA (Aug. 24, 2025) — School bells have been ringing this month as tens of thousands of local students begin the new school year, but there was one noticeable absence. After nine years as a free public charter school, the Contra Costa School of Performing Arts in the Shadelands section of Walnut Creek closed its doors in June for the final time.
Declining enrollment since the return to in-classroom education after the pandemic eventually proved too problematic and the school made the decision in January that the 2024-25 school year would be the school’s last. Enrollment equals revenue as public schools are funded exclusively by state payments based on average daily attendance.
Lisa Kingsbury, the director of community engagement, college and career for the school which served students from sixth through 12th grades, says, “It wasn’t any one thing [which accounted for declining enrollment].”
She was the longest servicing staff member having been hired during the writing of the charter. “From the time we quickly reached 300 students we would increase by 50 or so each year until we hit 500 in the 2019-20 school year.”
That number was a “sweet spot” for the specialized program that was housed in a former office building on Mitchell Drive in Walnut Creek starting with its second year of operation in 2017-18. “That number fit the size of the building. Following COVID that trend essentially reversed itself with the school losing 50 or so students each year.”
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School office manager Melissa Kirmsse, along with teacher/administrator Karen Montgomery and Kingsbury, were the three original staff members from the August 2016 opening still on staff.
Kirmsse explained that the school’s enrollment was always top heavy with middle schoolers. “Once students reached high school the intense requirement of three performing arts classes (versus one for middle schoolers) sent many kids to a traditional high school.”
Kingsbury added that some high school students decided they also wanted to play sports. After the pandemic, many SPA families decided to homeschool or do online studies. Several families moved out of state for a new lifestyle. Others, especially those from East Contra Costa, got tired of the commute centered around Ygnacio Valley Rd. traffic.
All those factors contributed to a starting enrollment under 300 last year. While the board explored some “Hail Mary” solutions, administrators decided they needed to look out for their families and announced after the holiday break that this would be the last for SPA.
Executive Director Catherine Foster and Kingsbury went to work with every family to find the best solution for each student, completing the 2024-25 school year at SPA or immediately at another school, and making sure all students were set for this fall.
Kingsburg met with the 24 junior class students and their parents. Eventually 19 of them chose to complete graduation requirements by June so that they could get a diploma from SPA in the class of 2025 along with the 23 members of the senior class. Those students are now readying for college while the other five members of the SPA Class of 2026 are at new high schools for this senior year.
During the spring semester the school continued to meet with its families in person and in Town Hall Zoom meetings that included presentations from the Mt. Diablo Unified School District and Oakland School for the Arts, another free public charter school.
Both MDUSD (68 students) and Clayton Valley Charter High School (18) have had an influx of former SPA students since the closure was announced last school term.
Neil McChesney, one of the teachers leading the conversion charter drive at Clayton Valley High School in 2010-11, founded the School of Performing Arts in 2015 after being an administrator at CVCHS. He was executive director of SPA through June 2021. Since he left there was a series of one-year EDs before Foster held the position the last two years.
McChesney is now Coordinator, Charter School Oversight for the Contra Costa County Office of Education. He mentioned that since the implementation of AB 1505 in 2020 and residual effects of COVID, the charter school movement in California has slowed.
There are now 22 charter schools in the county including CVCHS and Rocketship: Futuro Academy in Concord and Eagle Peak Montessori in Walnut Creek.
Jay Bedecarré
Jay Bedecarré is a long-time resident and writer in Concord and Clayton. He began his newspaper writing career while still a senior at Mt. Diablo High School and he has been part of The Pioneer since its inception in 2003. Jay also operates Bay Area Festivals, presenting events around the San Francisco Bay Area including Bay Area KidFest annually in Downtown Concord.