Loma Prieta Community Center
23800 Summit Road
Los Gatos, CA 95033
The Loma Prieta Community Center / Gym was built in 1988 to meet C.T. English Middle School’s need for a gym and the greater Loma Prieta community’s need for a community center.
The facility includes a full court gymnasium with a stage, a commercial kitchen, and four smaller rooms. Among the rooms are a community meeting room of 700 square feet, an art room, a music room with comfortable chairs and a sink, and a dance room with sprung wood floor, dance barre, full mirrored wall and a piano.
After many years of planning and fund raising, the facility opened with a ribbon cutting on November 6, 1988. The facility was built with funds from a four-year special purpose parcel tax, Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County, the Loma Prieta School District, and the Loma Prieta Community Foundation (LPCF).
The facility has been used by the school district for physical education classes, after-school sports, classrooms, meeting rooms, and in recent years, the Home & School Club Snack Shack lunch program. Over the years, the community has used the facility for many activities, including recreation classes, open-gym basketball for adults, special events, and meeting rooms. Theatre In the Mountains, an LPCF program, transforms the gym into a performing arts venue. Space has been rented for private parties. The Community Center kitchen has periodically been rented for use by commercial caterers.
Both the Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley Chapters of the American Red Cross designate the facility as a shelter site. The Mountain Emergency Response Corps, an affiliate of the two chapters uses the facility for meetings, trainings, and shelter exercises. Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services has designated the center as a remote disaster center and has stationed communications equipment there for use by ham radio volunteers.
The community center has undergone a number of renovations and improvements since being built. In 1990, a full disaster kitchen was installed using funds from the American Red Cross. A few years later, with funds from Santa Clara County LPCF built the Garden Terrace. In the late 1990’s the LPCF funded renovations that created the Dance Room, a special music room, refurbished the Community Center Room, and installed a 100 KW emergency generator. In the past few years, major renovations done by the school district included a new roof, seismic retrofitting in the gym, refurbishing the main restrooms, and the Community Center Room.
The latest project was the replacement of the gym floor, with funds from the state Office of Public School Construction and Santa Cruz County Parks, completed in 2012.