Box Elder School District presents phased 15‑year facilities plan after failed $220M bond

Box Elder School District leaders outlined a phased 15‑year facilities plan at a recent board discussion, proposing a roughly $90 million first phase that would move ninth grade into the two high schools, build a North‑End elementary school, add classrooms and a gym at Discovery, and reduce the district’s portable buildings.

District staff and board members presented the plan as an alternative after a previously proposed $220 million bond failed. The leadership team described the $90 million first phase as about 40 percent of the failed bond and said it would be funded through a truth‑in‑taxation measure, capital reserves and the sale of surplus property rather than a single large bond.

The plan’s stated goals are to reduce overcrowding at elementary schools, shrink middle‑school cohort sizes by reconfiguring grade bands (creating four smaller 6‑8 middle schools), address unreinforced‑masonry concerns in older buildings and expand Career and Technical Education (CTE) and classroom capacity. District presenters said phase 1 targets both north and south enrollment pressures by adding an estimated 8–10 classrooms (plus a gym) at Discovery and building a new elementary on a Tremonton‑area site the district said has now become viable for…