SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — As students and staff return to school across Utah, the Salt Lake City School District is preparing for major changes. Two of the state’s oldest high schools, West and Highland, are slated for complete rebuilds with price tags in the hundreds of millions, funded by taxpayers.
A recently approved bond will fund the projects. In November 2024, voters approved $730 million in bonds to rebuild West and Highland High, construct an athletic field house, and make upgrades across district schools. Isaac Astle, the district’s executive director of auxiliary services, called it “a staggering $300 million per school that we’re budgeting.”
District leaders say they’re focused on ensuring taxpayer dollars are used wisely. “This is a very long project. We’re looking at nearly eight years overall,” said Isaac Astle, the district’s executive director of auxiliary services.
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He explained that students will remain in the current West High building for at least the next three years while construction begins on the east side of the campus. “The first four years are going to be doing construction on the east side of Third West building, the main building,” Astle said. “And then once that’s completed, we’ll transfer the students from this building over there and then we’ll start the demolition and restoration of this side and complete the athletic fields that will be on this side of the street.”…