West Valley principal urges consolidation of middle and junior high, cites safety and aging building

Nick Clark, principal of West Valley Middle School, urged residents to approve a school improvement measure in February that he said would allow all sixth through eighth graders in the West Valley School District to be housed under a single roof.

Clark told attendees that the district’s "mid level campus" currently includes both the middle school and the junior high and that the two buildings are separated by a distance that forces shared seventh-graders to move between buildings during the school day. "It's really about safety," he said, adding that students are often "out of the building, not contained within the walls."

Clark described a proposal to add onto the middle school and to refresh parts of the facility so the campus could accommodate all sixth, seventh and eighth graders together. "I think the goal is to get all the kids under 1 roof, and I think we can do that by adding on to the middle school," he said.

He outlined the differing conditions of the two buildings: the junior high, he said, was built in 1978 and is "showing its age," having received a "poor or fair" functionality rating, while the middle school, at about 30 years old, has "really good infrastructure" and could last another few decades with modest work.

Clark also urged community turnout, saying, "You have an opportunity to get out and vote, and I highly encourage everyone to do that. This is a chance for us to get these improvements done without adding added tax burden." The remarks did not include specifics about the financing plan, ballot language or any formal vote by the district; those details were not provided in the comments recorded here.

No motions or formal actions were recorded in these remarks. Next steps and any binding decisions would depend on official district proposals, ballot language and subsequent public votes.