Unlike many of Alpine School District's recently built schools, Lone Peak High School will be ready when school begins next week.
Students won't have to worry about creative scheduling or temporary quarters to accommodate unfinished construction work. Principal Jim Starr said that after two years of construction, the $28 million, 275,000-square-foot building will be complete when school begins Aug. 25. An open house is set Monday night."Basically everything is done but the landscaping," said Starr, who was selected as the school's first principal after spending the last three years at Oak Canyon Junior High School.
About 1,350 students from Alpine, Highland and Cedar Hills have been registering for the new school this week. The school was built to relieve crowding at American Fork and Pleasant Grove high schools. Even with Lone Peak open, American Fork High School will have more than 1,200 students and Pleasant Grove High School more than 1,600 students.
"Without us here they would really be bulging," Starr said.
The spacious school has a 1,000-seat auditorium, 2,000-seat gymnasium, a preschool and enough laboratory space for 400 computers - all of which will be linked to the Internet. The school is also advanced in applied technology areas and will have a greenhouse.
"There's a lot of technology in the building. Everything's state-of-the-art," Starr said.
School officials plan to obtain partnerships with local businesses and use their knowledge to incorporate an integrative curriculum.
Doors to the new school officially open Monday at 5 p.m. The Lone Peak Parent Teacher and Student Association is holding a ribbon cutting and open house for residents to tour the facility.