Canyons School District details facility upgrades, budget trade-offs and maintenance challenges

Canyons School District officials outlined ongoing capital projects, maintenance needs and budgeting decisions for the district’s 49 buildings, a portfolio the district said totals about 6,200,000 square feet.

On the Connect Canyons podcast, Ryan Jakeman, the district’s facilities associate director, and Bruce Eschler, principal of Jordan High, described recent work and how the district decides whether to repair, remodel or rebuild aging buildings. "If something has outlived its life expectancy, then we need to start looking at getting it repaired or replaced," Jakeman said, summarizing the district’s use of a facility condition index to set priorities.

The discussion matters because deferred maintenance and outdated learning spaces affect safety, learning and long-term costs. Speakers said an early district assessment identified roughly $650,000,000 in deferred upgrades that helped shape a multi‑year plan: "In just 16 years, we've made incredible strides rebuilding or significantly remodeling 27 schools," the podcast host noted, citing the district’s tally.

Most immediately at Jordan High, Eschler said the school is getting several building upgrades. Work under way or planned includes renovated restrooms, a new black-box theater and indoor practice space, a softball clubhouse, upgraded auditorium lighting and sound, additional AV in gyms and performing-arts rooms, and a reconfigured front office to add a secure vestibule. "Restrooms was something that came out time and time again," Eschler said, describing feedback from students, teachers and community members.

Jakeman explained how the district ranks projects: teams inspect components such as chillers, boilers and roofing, compare remaining life expectancy and compute a facility condition index (FCI). Buildings with very high FCI scores can be more costly to upgrade than to rebuild. "You would be spending probably a hundred and $50,000 for a $30,40000 car because the individual prices are so much more than just tearing it down and rebuilding it," he said, using an analogy to explain replacement economics.

Budgeting mixes routine facilities funds and larger financing for major projects. Jakeman and Eschler said the district uses an annual capital budget process for prioritized items and issues bonds for larger projects; the conversation mentioned lease‑revenue bonds and general obligation bonds as funding mechanisms used for larger projects.

Speakers also described how changing program needs and enrollment shifts affect space use. Eschler said some former computer labs and other older spaces have been repurposed for career-technical education and newly funded teen centers that include showers, laundry and private space for students who are homeless or housing‑insecure. "We realized we've got a space where there was a classroom, there was kind of like a small closet, and then there was this old addition… These spaces would make a great teen center," Eschler said.

Operational challenges flagged by facilities staff included galvanized plumbing embedded in masonry walls, aging roofs, and parking-lot reconfigurations to improve safety and traffic flow. Jakeman said many components reach end-of-life at different times and sometimes must be kept "limping along" until budgets permit replacement. The district also emphasized investments in seismic upgrades, uniform digital surveillance cameras, card access and PA systems. The podcast referenced a state requirement—House Bill 84—that established secure vestibule requirements; Jakeman said Jordan was among the last schools in the district to complete that feature.

Staffing and in-house trades were presented as advantages. Jakeman described maintenance and custodial staff and specialty trades (journeyman and master electricians, master plumbers, locksmiths, painters) as essential to daily operations and a cost-saver compared with outsourcing. Maintenance staff were described as roughly 70 people districtwide; Jordan High was said to have about six to seven full-time custodial staff.

There were no formal votes or board actions recorded on the podcast. Jakeman and Eschler described the district’s ongoing capital planning, daily maintenance demands and ways school‑level projects (for example, desks, lighting or minor remodels) are coordinated with district facilities.