Inside the new Thunder Ridge High School
The Bonneville School District’s new Thunder Ridge High School is set to open in August for the new school year.
“It’s a lot more fun now that we start to see people going into buildings and into classrooms,” Doug McLaren, Principal for Thunder Ridge High School, said. “It’s gonna be a great experience and has been so far.”
The new Thunder Ridge High School is finally starting to look like a school. Lights are on, lockers are in and construction is just a few months from completion. One of the highlights of the new school is its gym.
“So, you’ve got the main gym here, the main court,” Eric Albaugh, Project Manager, said. “Then you got two practice gyms on either side and there’ll be bleachers on either side that go down to the main court and then up above even, almost to the ceiling.”
Classrooms are also starting to take shape.
“This is one of the biology rooms,” Albaugh said. “You can see there’s just a lot of, a lot of cabinets, a lot of counter top, a lot of lab space.”
The auditorium is also close to being ready. Crews used a unique way to create some of the seating.
“Our tiered seating is all built out of foam,” Albaugh said. “Big foam blocks, we stack them up into this pattern you see over here. And then we pour a thin kind of shell of concrete over the top of it. And then the seats are bolted down to that thin layer of concrete.”
With a capacity for 1,500 students, one of the main key designs for the building was to be open. There are big windows in all of the classrooms and hallways to bring in more light.
“It’s gonna be a nice open facility, a lot of windows,” McLaren said. “In our district for sure, that’s something that is a nice addition, to have some natural light in almost every classroom in the building we’ll have some natural light.”
The school is scheduled to be ready for the new school year this Fall. The district wants people to know that just because there is a brand new high school, all of the schools in the district will have the same quality teaching and programs.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re going to school in the district,” McLaren said. “You’re going to have a good education, good opportunities to be successful and to explore different ways to, to be unique and to be who you are.”
The new school is still looking for teachers. They’ve opened applications to external candidates after first offering the positions to current teachers within the district. If you have a student going there who will be playing sports, there is a Meet the Coaches night on February 19th at Iona Elementary School at 7 pm.
