THE LAST WORD:

Sage Hill School recently broke ground on an $18-million arts facility that will feature a theater, a film studio, state-of-the-art sound technology and more. The 31,000-square-foot facility, known as The Studio at Sage Hill, is scheduled to open in time for fall 2009.

For those keeping track, that will be nine years after Sage Hill first opened its doors to students, and 11 years after founding Head of School Clint Wilkins began laying out plans for the nondenominational private school — on about 180 Post-it notes, which he stuck to the walls of a tiny office near John Wayne Airport.

When Sage Hill started construction on an empty hill in Newport Coast, it was a gamble: an expensive private school in one of Orange County’s most affluent areas that sought a student body from all backgrounds and socioeconomic levels. Since then, the Daily Pilot has watched the school grow year after year. Sage Hill has excelled in sports, hosted an annual multicultural fair, established a tradition of an elaborate senior class gift, and recently added a forensics class to train students in the art of police investigation.

The Studio at Sage Hill will be another breakthrough for a school that has had many in its first decade. And we suspect it will be far from the last.