School board approves preferred rebuild options for West and Highland high schools

The Salt Lake City School District Board of Education on Dec. 3 approved recommended rebuilding plans for West and Highland high schools, endorsing a faster construction phasing that officials say will limit student disruption and better control costs.

District staff recommended “Option 3” for West High and “Option 1, Addendum C” for Highland High. The board voted to approve the recommendations after a multi-hour presentation outlining site layouts, phasing, cost estimates and community outreach.

District Director of Auxiliary Services Isaac Astell, who led the presentation, said the recommended West option places a new academic building on the east side of Third West to allow most construction to occur off the existing campus and avoid keeping students in portables for extended periods. “It’s the fastest schedule. We can potentially, from the time we break ground, three years later, we could be transferring every the students and teachers over to the other side,” Astell said. For Highland, Astell said the preferred option places the new building on the north end of the property and preserves on-site athletic fields.

Astell told the board the programs were refined after more than 50 outreach meetings and more than 2,000 questionnaire responses. He said earlier cost and capacity assumptions were reduced—each school’s square footage estimate was trimmed by about 400 students’ worth of capacity—to better align with available budget. The district plans to use the construction-manager/general-contractor (CMGC) delivery model and aims to select contractors in spring 2025 and complete design in 2025–26, with a goal to break ground in spring 2026.

Architects from VCBO and other firms outlined trade-offs among options: preserving large portions of West High’s historic façade would raise costs substantially and lengthen construction so that students could be in portables for five to seven years under some scenarios. VCBO principal Alex Booth said West’s exterior materials are often concrete formed and coated, not hand-cut stone, which increases repair complexity and cost. “A lot of that is crumbling. It would have to be repointed, repaired, and that’s why the costs were so high,” Booth said.

Board members and the public raised questions about neighborhood impacts, athletic-field access and how to involve community stakeholders in the design phase. Astell said the district has contacted the city about planning and zoning requirements and will continue outreach during the design and preconstruction process. He said the district would maintain flexibility to adapt facilities to future program changes in secondary education, such as evolving middle-school configurations.

Student board member Helena, who attends West High, urged the board to avoid options that would keep students in portables for years. “Students probably wouldn’t be happy about that, considering that one of the options said it would be for seven years,” she said, noting the effect on multi-year student cohorts.

Board President Nate Salazar called the architects and staff to the table for the next steps and thanked the firms and community for their work. The board adopted the recommendation in a roll-call vote with Christie Sweat, Bryce Williams, Jenny Sika, Ashley Anderson, Nate Salazar and Bridal Jensen voting yes. The board directed staff to proceed with preconstruction activities under the CMGC model and return with details on contractor recommendations, phasing and community engagement plans.

The district’s bond program, approved by voters earlier, funds the projects; Astell confirmed further budget refinement would continue during contractor selection and value engineering.

Board members said they expect multiple opportunities for community input during the next design phase and that district leadership will present more-detailed timelines and engagement plans as design advances.

Votes at a glance - Approve West High preferred option (Option 3): approved (yes: Christie Sweat; Bryce Williams; Jenny Sika; Ashley Anderson; Nate Salazar; Bridal Jensen). - Approve Highland High preferred option (Option 1, Addendum C): approved (same roll call).

What happens next District staff will pursue CMGC procurement and complete design in 2025 with a target for spring 2026 ground-breaking, subject to contractor selection and final budget reconciliation.