By Julie Slama | [email protected]

Students will return to school this August at the new Beehive Academy of Science & Technology, Glacier Hills Elementary, Challenger Sandy campus and Diamond Ridge High School and Entrada Adult High School.

Construction will continue at several other campuses, including Waterford School, Union Middle and Peruvian Park Elementary.

Beehive Academy

The ribbon-cutting for the tuition-free charter school will be held at 5 p.m., Aug. 10 at 2165 E. 9400 South.

The new school location, former home of Shopko, will open with the main level at 94,049 square feet and is expected to expand from 700 students to more than 900 students, opening the school to younger students so it will serve kindergarten through high school seniors.

The 22,553-square-foot second floor will be finished in the future.

The building was purchase at $12.4 million with another $13.4 million being earmarked for renovations and fees, Beehive Academy Principal Hanifi Oguz said.

“I am very excited and thrilled about the growth of the school and how we are now finally able to offer the same quality of education to even more students,” he said. “Our wonderful STEM program will be part of our elementary also, and we have spared no expense to be able to have STEM labs, computer labs and engineering programs, offered even to the youngest of students.”

Glacier Hills Elementary

The ribbon-cutting of the 95,000-square-foot Glacier Hills will be at 6 p.m., Aug. 11 at 1085 S. 9800 South.

The new $30,660,000 Glacier Hills will house students from the former Edgemont and Bell View elementary schools to create a unified student body in the new home of the Yetis. The school has skylights, large windows and glass sliding classrooms so students can collaborate in small areas.

“It has lots of natural daylighting; I think that's probably my favorite feature,” Canyons Chief Financial Officer and Business Administrator Leon Wilcox said. “I like the layout of the playground and I like how we have our buses separated from our parent drop off. That should work out great.”

There also is a designated space for counselors and other professionals to visit with students and a youth academy, a program to help elementary students with study skills, credit recovery, behavior skills and support, which will be completed in December.

This and other Canyons School District remodels and rebuilds were made possible when voters approved a $283-million tax-neutral bond in 2017.

Challenger

Challenger’s Sandy location will hold an open house from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 5 at its new school campus at 10650 S. 700 East.

The new 52,000-square-foot school features 30 preschool through eighth-grade classrooms, a computer lab, a science lab, and a large multipurpose auditorium. In addition, the school will feature a large synthetic turf field and track as well as a preschool and kindergarten playground and two playgrounds for elementary and middle school students.

The student capacity of the new campus is 810 students.

“Our current campus served us well, but was close to needing a complete overhaul,” said CEO Hugh Gourgeon about the 41-year-old campus a few blocks east of the new school. “And, we built it in stages over the years. So, while it worked, the facility wasn’t optimal. This new campus is a purpose-built facility, designed to allow us to provide the best education for our students. We are really pleased to have been able to complete its construction in time to open before school begins this fall.”

There have been no decisions made regarding the use of the old campus.

Diamond Ridge High School and Entrada Adult High School

Remodeling of the former Bell View Elementary is underway to transform the school to Diamond Ridge, Canyons School District’s alternative high school, and Entrada, Canyons’ adult educational high school.

“The main thing we're doing now is restrooms because they’re little kids’ restrooms, so we’ve got to convert those into bigger kids’ restrooms,” Wilcox said.

There also will be a second entrance and office remodel so both programs will have separate entrances and offices and a counseling suite.

There are plans for science labs, art classrooms, family and consumer science labs, a teen-parent room and a preschool. Additional office space will be made for outside services, so vocational rehabilitation and the Division of Workforce Services can meet with students and their families.

Diamond Ridge, which opened in August 2015, is expected to limit enrollment at 120 students this year, but the school should be able house up to 300 students the following school year, Wilcox said.

Meanwhile, all eight Diamond Ridge portables at Canyons Technical Education Center are expected to be moved, allowing for more parking space. The space the programs used in CTEC’s building is earmarked to start a pharmacy tech program in 2023 as well as expand the current cosmetology and criminal justice programs, he said.

Phase I of the Diamond Ridge remodel is $1.6M, which is being funded through a capital grant from the state, Wilcox said. The phase II remodel has not been bid yet.

The two schools will hold a joint open house and ribbon-cutting at 6 p.m., Aug. 10 at their new home, 9800 S. 800 East.

Waterford

In early April, Waterford School held its ground-breaking for a new science center on the campus. The facility is to be at the center of student learning, with state-of-the-art integrated lab spaces, a robotics and tool space, and an intentionally-designed nature lab space for the outdoor program with an observation deck that looks out to Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The project is part of $27-million Waterford Rises fundraising campaign designed to enhance student experience and support teaching excellence, Head of School Andrew Menke said.

“The science center will bring a STEM education alive as students work alongside facility conducting experiments and engaging in hands-on, immersive learning,” he said.

Along with the $22-million science center, the school has plans to use the campaign funds for a new student commons and turf field in the future.

Sophomore Lily Moshirfar spoke at the new science center ground-breaking, recalling several science moments in classes she has had at the school since attending from age 3.

“Those lessons of science really put this world into perspective for me,” she said. “They taught me how to think and see and question things from a scientific view. It is my dream to become a scientist. I believe that science is everything and everything is science. This building will bring this community closer as we take advantage of the space to fill our minds and learn together.”

Also in the science center, there will be a nature lab to house “a huge donation of really nice specimens from all over the world,” said science teacher Daniel Osipovitch, who added it will “be almost like a natural history kind of classroom hybrid. It’s going to be super cool.”

Junior Rohit Singh said even though the building will be completed in fall 2023, after he graduates, he wants to return to tour the chemistry and physics labs, the biosafety lab and the robotics space.

“It's going to definitely make a lot of the newer students more passionate about science,” he said.

Union

Union Middle is expected to be on schedule with its opening to students in fall 2023.

During the next few months, crews will begin on the roof and “be working heavy on the mechanical and electrical; those two big areas,” Wilcox said.

After the school year is over for the 2022-23 school year, the existing school, which opened in 1968, will be torn down to put in soccer fields and parking. That is expected to be completed in December 2023, he said.

Ground was broken for the new Union Middle in April 2021. The new school, that will sport the school colors of blue and yellow, will have state-of-the-art technology as well as skylights to allow natural light to flood into the building.

The classroom wings, located near the main office, will have collaborative spaces for each grade level. An additional wing will house students with disabilities and a collaborative area for psychologists, speech pathologists and others. An adapted PE area, that includes a ramp and outdoor learning equipment, for those with physical disabilities is planned as well.

The performing arts area, with a 650-seat auditorium, will be located near the main office as well as arts and career and technical education classes. The family and consumer sciences rooms will include a culinary setup with steel moveable tables so the room can be shaped in lines or in a U-shape to watch demonstrations.

The gymnasium, which will feature an indoor track, will be used for dance and PE classes. Equipment that is similar to that on “American Ninja Warrior” as well as a climbing wall will be located nearby, close to the cafeteria.

There also will be the Bobcat Den, a large learning space where multiple classes can meet, or it could house district professional development staff meetings.

The construction cost of Union comes in at $62,181,000, Wilcox said.

Peruvian Park

The supply chain issues resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as trying to get supplies from the Baltic states during the Ukraine-Russia war has slowed progress on Peruvian Park Elementary, Wilcox said.

Once it was determined last winter that were would be delays with steel, it was announced the new school building wouldn’t be ready until this fall, after the start of the school year.

Since then, there also have been supply issues with concrete powder and glass and aluminum framing that comes from the Baltic states.

“We're also struggling with the mechanical, the HVAC or some of the electrical because we just don't have enough workers there. A lot of construction projects across the Wasatch Front have been impacted as well. It’s a very fluid situation,” he said. “Everybody's frustrated. I'm sure parents are going to be frustrated or teachers are frustrated. I'm frustrated. We're trying our best.”

Construction began on the new $23,140,000 Peruvian Park in late March 2021 and by that summer, the 1964 Peruvian Park school building was demolished.

The new two-story school will feature its school colors of red and black and can house up to 800 Panthers in its 92,000-square-foot design. It will be a seismically safe, energy-efficient building that has updated technology in all 30 classrooms and skylights for natural lighting. Two classrooms will be dedicated to music and art instruction.