SALT LAKE CITY — Changes are coming to Utah's oldest public high school.
Feasibility studies for West High School have been taking place for months now, and the Salt Lake City School District has narrowed it down to four options for the school's future.
Carlton Christensen graduated from West High School in 1984, one of his two children also attended West High, and he served on the Salt Lake City Council when the school was originally in his council district. Christensen says while many things have changed since he walked the halls, the spirit of the school has remained the same.
"The comradery of how the students interact with each other is a really familiar site," he said. "They look a lot younger than when I was there, but as I watch them, that's one of the fun things as you drive down 300 West — you can see the students interacting with each other."
West High is Utah's oldest public high school and one of the most diverse schools in the state. Christensen says the diversity was just one of the things he and his seven older siblings thought made the school great.
"One of the things that we really valued at West is that everybody was accepted regardless of their socioeconomic status," he said. "There was a lot of genuine friendships — how they saw you as a friend as opposed to where you might be on the economic spectrum."
After a century, West High will likely be rebuilt or renovated under four options presented during the West High Feasibility Meeting that took place on Jan. 18.
The proposed options are:
- Preserving the main building
- Preserving only the facade of the main building
- A new school to the east, preserving only the main entrance as part of a new athletic facility on the west side
- A new school to the south, demolishing existing buildings
"It's obviously a fabric of the historical development of the west side of Salt Lake, and there aren't a lot of historical structures left that tell the history of that area," Carlton said.
Christensen is one of many worried about the community losing another part of its urban fabric, but he recognizes how these renovations could benefit students.
"One of the advantages that could come is a safer structure, seismic needs to say the least, but certainly additional classroom opportunities and resources there. When you look at the new high schools across the state, they're pretty massive," Christensen said.
He hopes decision-makers will also consider that urban high schools have different needs than their suburban counterparts.
"There's a lengthier cost about how families access the resources there, how they participate in after-school events... to step much away from an urban model of that, I think would be a real setback to what we as a community are expecting for having an urban high school," Christensen said.
No matter what comes next for West High, Christensen hopes the same school spirit he felt in 1984 carries on.
"I think it's a valuable campus that I wouldn't want to lose in the heart of the west side community just for the sake of building a new building," Christensen said.
