Incredible Honor for Our School

 Of more than 1,000 public schools in the state of Utah, Soldier Hollow Charter School is one of only three public schools nominated by the Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2011 to be a National Blue Ribbon School.

Sponsored by the United States Department of Education, the Blue Ribbon School Program honors public and private elementary, middle, and high schools that are have performed particularly well on the most recent year’s state assessments.

While most schools in the county – and many statewide – struggled to meet their “Adequate Yearly Progress” this past year, we’re pleased that our students were well above the state standards in every area – language arts, mathematics, and science.

March 25, 2010

Our first new classroom building passed its final building inspection today! In addition, Mr. Weber and I went down to the factory to inspect it on behalf of the school.

We continue to be amazed with the quality of the work being done by Advanced Modular! Small details – like the fact that the siding is cut precisely to line up with the trim – with a 1/8″ grout between – completely amaze me. They were in the process of replacing the epoxy flooring in all the entryways and restrooms because it didn’t meet their quality standards. Instead of using their own crew, they’re bringing in a specialty flooring contractor to do it right – all at no additional cost to the school.

Here are a few pictures. It’s tough to give you the complete image. Can’t wait for you to see it yourselves!

Soldier Hollow’s ski season ends this weekend, so our excavation and site preparation is scheduled to start on Monday.

It’s been a long time in coming, but everything FINALLY seems to be falling into place for us!

March 9, 2010. After this long, long wait, it is FANTASTIC to see these buildings coming together! The first of our three new buildings – a Classroom/Waxing Building – is almost complete. I’m so excited for teachers, students and some of our parents to get their first glimpse on Thursday. Now that they’re coming together, I think these classrooms are going to be even nicer than I anticipated. The exterior is lovely. In addition to what you see, accent trim at the top and the bottom will be a nice Hardi-Plank “Countryside Red”.

Mr. Weber picked the wall carpeting – and did a wonderful job. It has enough color to be low maintenance, but doesn’t darken the room. It looks so warm and comfortable! I’d been told that they weren’t going to be able to have vaulted ceilings in the entryway (because of all the ducts and plumbing in ceiling), so was delighted to see that they’re vaulted anyway.

The second building you see here – the Observation Building – is about 2 weeks behind the first in construction. This building will house 5 boys and 5 girls’ restrooms (accessible from interior or exterior entrances) and two classrooms. These two classrooms will open up into a really nice, spacious multipurpose room. We’ve dubbed it the “Observation Building” because it will overlook the race course finish line. It has a small entryway (for energy conservation), but will open up nicely to create a space that’s not much smaller than the open room up at the lodge. It’ll be great to have all those open areas when we need them for assemblies and large group settings.

The two things that stood out for me when Mr. Weber, Chris Willis (board chair) and I visited the factory where our buildings are being constructed a couple of weeks ago:

1) THE “BEEFINESS” OF THEIR CONSTRUCTION.  From the steel frame undergirdings to the 2×6 framing, heavy duty flooring, and the reinforcement throughout, I was very impressed with the construction quality. I’d seen this all in the plans, but it was so much more graphic to see it firsthand.

2) THE CEILINGS. The architect’s initial plans called for very high vaulted ceilings. We’d opted for a more affordable compromise – with 8 foot ceilings on one half of each building (most of the ductwork will run through this side) and the other half vaulting up to 11 feet. While we really couldn’t afford the fully vaulted ceilings, I guess I’d wondered if they would be as open and dramatic as we’d like. You can see Chuck and Chris standing next to the high wall in one of the photos above. With all of the windows and this high wall in place, I was really excited to get a sense of how open these rooms will be.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS. I was also blown away with the size of the buildings and the classrooms. Each of the buildings you see here will be twice as wide as what you see here. And, each of these three buildings will be longer than our existing building. Two will open up into an 1800sf multi-purpose room when needed (30×74′, with an entryway and two restrooms in the front center side). The third (we’re calling it the Observation Building) will have 10 toilets and two classrooms that will open up to create a nice rectangular room (about 1200sf) and deck overlooking the ski race finish line.

We were seeing sheetrock, but I could easily envision the completed buildings now. The finishes are lovely – walls will be carpeted for sound and warmth. The room dividers are the type you see in hotel conference centers – with good quality soundproofing, and white boards across. Each building will have an entryway to help with heat loss in the winter. The teachers (and students) will love the fact that every classroom will have its own thermostat and climate control.

TIMING. Once a modular building goes onto the factory’s floor, construction generally takes only about 1-2 weeks. During the hour we were there, they set all three walls for one of our buildings (two modules will be joined together on-site). In order to work at that rapid pace, however, they generally receive a visit from their normal state-certified building inspector every day.

Since our buildings are being overseen by the Utah Division of Facilities and Construction Management (DFCM), DFCM requires that the factory use an inspector who’s been approved by them. We experienced some frustrating delays in January just trying to set up a first inspection by the inspector DFCM had assigned. I’m waiting for a progress report today, but I think they’ve now been able to set up an advance schedule for inspections, so hopefully this will more more quickly now.

As of last week, they had framed the first two buildings and started installing electrical.

You may run into some electricians at the school over the coming weeks. They’ll be updating our existing alarm system and installing an intercom and bell system that we can hook into once the buildings come on site.

The factory is brand new, and pretty high tech. Mr. Weber would like to take all of our kids on a field trip to see the construction in progress – hopefully next week.

Once again – thanks so much for your patience! We’re hoping that when you see these buildings, you’ll forget about our growing pains!

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Check out the photos on the groundbreaking article below!

This turned out to be a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for our students. The Olympians (Nordic Combined team) who helped with our groundbreaking ended up making history in Vancouver – shattering several barriers that Americans had never before achieved. Here are some of their “firsts:” First medal for the USA (ever!) in Nordic Combined. First Nordic Combined Team race medal. First gold medal for the United States in ANY Nordic event, ever! It was a blast to meet these men and then be able to follow their exploits in Vancouver.