Nebo District opens 4 new schools

MAPLETON — The new junior high school smells like fresh paint and new carpet. But for 13-year-old Hannah Savage, a violinist, the best part of Mapleton Junior High is the lockers in the band and orchestra rooms.

"Each instrument has their very own locker," said eighth-grader Savage about the oblong wood lockers, which are different sizes for large and small instruments.

With the help of students, members of the Nebo School District Board of Education on Monday ceremoniously cut a ribbon to officially open the $14.5 million school.

While school starts today at 7:55 a.m., the school won't be unfamiliar to much of the student body. Most of the school's 900 students had previously toured the building during a "Back to School" event.

The single-story building at 1200 N. 400 East is about 198,000 square feet.

In addition to the junior high in Mapleton, Nebo officials cut ribbons at three other new schools Tuesday: Foothills Elementary in Salem, Orchard Hills Elementary in Santaquin and East Meadows Elementary in Spanish Fork.

The elementary schools are 88,234 square feet each and cost $8.4 million, said Steve Carter, building official for the Nebo School District.

In February 2004, voters approved a $140 million bond to build and remodel schools and buy property throughout the district

Students in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades will attend Mapleton Junior High as the district undergoes a change in the configuration of its schools.

Previously, students attended sixth and seventh grades in middle schools and eighth and ninth grades in junior high schools.

But starting this year in Springville and Mapleton, the district is eliminating middle schools.

The 25,000-student district is growing by about 1,000 students a year and needs the middle schools' space for additional elementary and junior high schools.

To that end, officials have added the sixth grade to elementary schools and seventh grade to junior high schools.

That's OK with Hailey Harlan, a student government leader at Mapleton Junior High.

"The sixth-graders, (they're) still kind of little so they should stay in elementary schools," she said.

It is the first secondary school in Mapleton, but not the town's first school.

In the late 1880s, the town had two one-room schools, one in north Mapleton and one in south Mapleton, said Collin Allan, school board member and Mapleton resident.

In 1899, the two schools combined into one school with six grades at the site on which Mapleton Elementary School now is located, 120 W. Maple, and Hobble Creek Elementary was the only school in town.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com