Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Celebrates Opening of New DP Media Building

Live from the Dos Pueblos High School campus, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held for the DP Media program.

Classes moved into the new state-of-the-art Virgil Elings Media Arts and Communications Center this fall.

The award-winning DP Media program serves hundreds of students each year, teaching broadcast and journalism classes, along with yearbook. Computer Science, digital arts, photography, graphics, and animation classes are also taught in the building.

DP News broadcasts a daily newscast to the campus each day, produces podcasts, and publishes a student newspaper.

“This facility is a place where students can come to learn, grow, and flourish in a hands-on, innovative, welcoming environment. It was designed to foster collaboration in the media arts world, and I am excited to see our students and teachers interact in such a meaningful way. Career Technical Education is key to the future of our society, and this new facility is a place where this learning will flourish.” John Dent, DPMedia Director.

The new building is part of a larger Career and Technical Education hub on the south end of the Dos Pueblos campus.

“The opening of the Elings Media Arts and Communications Center not only gives our award-winning media pathway an industry quality, state-of-the-art facility to serve our talented students, it recognizes the vital role career technical education plays in preparing the youth in our community for the jobs of the present and future. Generations to come will benefit from this project!” said DPHS Principal Bill Woodard.

The internationally recognized Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy (DPEA) is also in the process of expanding into a new facility nextdoor to the Media Arts and Communications Center.

“This new facility is a true gem of the Dos Pueblos campus and Santa Barbara Unified. The skills these students learn in their new classrooms will prepare them to be 21st-century journalists, broadcasters, documentarians, filmmakers, and so much more. We are so proud to see the high-quality work DP Media students are doing each and every day,” said Dr. Hilda Maldonado, Superintendent.

The project was envisioned and developed thanks to teachers John Dent,  Amir Abo-Shaeer and Emily Shaeer who wrote a grant proposal. The money awarded from that helped leverage Measure I Funds to replace old portables with this state-of-the-art facility.