Established in 1978, under the leadership of founding principal Florence Johnson and project resource teacher Ole Kittleson, the School of Creative and Performing Arts opened as a school-within-a school on the Roosevelt Middle School campus. As a result of a court mandate, SCPA was one of San Diego Unified School District's first magnet schools created to facilitate voluntary integration. SCPA first opened with 1 administrator, 17 teachers, 1 counselor, 17 support staff and 180 students in grades 4, 5, and 6. 46 seventh grade students were added in the spring semester with 8th grade added the following year. These 8th grade students became the first graduating class of SCPA. In the Fall of 1982, SCPA relocated to the former Mabel E. O'Farrell site in Southeast San Diego and became known as the O'Farrell School of Creative and Performing Arts. As the program grew in popularity, it became inevitable that SCPA would require a new facility to meet the demands of this unique and successful new school. In the Fall of 1990, SCPA moved to its new, permanent site and became known as the San Diego School of Creative & Performing Arts.

SCPA today occupies a 12 million dollar facility in southeast San Diego (Paradise Hills) that maintains a fully equipped 500 seat theatre, a 100 seat black box, box office, 6 dance studios, TV studio/video recording booth, art and music rooms, library, computer labs as well as traditional academic classrooms and science labs. The school now boasts 1500 students, an administrative team of 4, 72 teachers, 4 counselors, and a support staff of 70. The school offers annually an artistic season consisting of dance, choral and instrumental concerts, an art exhibition, and musical theatre and dramatic productions presented in both the Florence Johnson Grand Theatre and the Ole Kittleson Theatre.

We, the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), are dedicated to providing a challenging interdisciplinary curriculum which inspires academic and artistic excellence for a culturally diverse population. We are committed to a personalized atmosphere of self-esteem, respect, enthusiasm and cooperation.