By Alexa Mae Asperin
May 9, 2022
Saturday’s groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Dr. Dre, who in 2017 donated $10 million for the school’s new performing arts center. The facility will be named the “Andre ‘Dr. Dre’ Young Performing Arts Center,” the Compton Unified School District announced.

“I was an artistic kid in school with no outlet for it,” he said at the ceremony. “I knew I had something special to offer to the world, but with nothing to support my gift, schools left me feeling unseen.”

“I’ve always wondered how much further ahead I might have been had the resources I needed in school were available,” he said at the ceremony. “If I had learned more about the business industry, I would have saved myself [an] extreme amount of time, money and most importantly, [made] a lot of friendships,” he added.

Dr. Dre attended Centennial High before transferring to Fremont High in South LA, but eventually dropped out.

Dr. Dre and fellow friend and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, who co-founded Beats Electronics, announced last year they were opening a magnet public school in South LA this fall. The two also donated $70 million to USC to create a new academy.

The new campus for Compton High will serve up to 1,800 students and will house a new academic building, gym, aquatics center, football stadium, and track.

Funding for the high school was also made possible through the district’s bond measure passed by voters in 2015.