Tooele Valley’s first new high school in nearly a century set new standards and changed alliances

When the first bell finally rang on the morning of Aug. 24, 2009, Stansbury High School students opened the first new high school built in Tooele Valley in decades.

The opening of SHS signaled a new era. Besides adding one more in-county rival, the school split the valley’s pool of teachers, students, and athletic teams in three ways instead of two.

“We’ve waited a long time for this day,” said Kendall Topham, principal of Stansbury High School. “Our greatest hope for today is to begin the process of pulling the students together to make one school out of students that have come from Grantsville High School, Tooele High School and Clarke Johnsen Junior High School.”

SHS also set new standards for modern school construction. Its 245,000 square feet contained classrooms, a lunch room, office, auditorium and gym space all pre-wired for the latest technology of sound systems, LCD projectors and smart boards.

The school was designed with potential community use in mind. The library has an access door off the front vestibule so community patrons don’t have to go through the school. The 1,200-seat auditorium can be closed off from the rest of the school and accessed through a separate entrance as well. And both the athletic wing, including the 1,900-seat gym, and the technical education wing of the building are designed with separate entrances and atriums.

SHS also features modern design elements such as curved lines, open space, an abundance of natural light, vivid colors throughout, and suspended cloud ceilings.

The total bill for the school, completed on time and on budget, according to Steve West, Tooele School District construction coordinator, was $38.5 million.

The capacity of the building is 1,600 students. Three months before the school opened, Topham was expecting an initial enrollment of 1,220 students. However, 1,371 students showed up for the school’s first day.

To staff the school with roughly 52 teachers, more than 300 teachers throughout the school district were reshuffled.

All teachers were asked to indicate if they wanted to move to the new school, said Terry Linares, Tooele County School District superintendent. District officials then sat down with principals and worked out transfers to make sure that every school involved maintained a mix of new and experienced teachers.

“In a typical year, we have about 20 in-district transfers,” Linares said. “So you can see the magnitude of work we had to do in preparing for Stansbury High to open.”

Topham said it was great to finally see the school filled with students.

“It was kind of fun to come down here earlier when there was nobody in the building and it was quiet,” Topham said. “But the place feels totally different with students and teachers in the classrooms. It is hard to describe but that’s what the building is all about: students learning.”

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com