Canyons District’s aggressive school improvement schedule continues with four schools slated for construction.

Rebuilds of Peruvian Park Elementary, Union Middle and a school in the White City area will start in 2021, under a plan recently approved by the Board of Education to ensure the timely completion of the projects promised to voters with 2017 passage of a $283 million bond. The plan, which entails consolidating White City’s Bell View and Edgemont communities to be housed in a new school on the Edgemont campus, also calls for the construction of a new school in west Draper starting in 2023.

To facilitate the projects, the Board approved the issuance of up to $35 million in lease-revenue bonds, the use of money from the sale of property, and expenditure of approximately $5 million from the General Fund. The action was necessitated by rising labor and materials costs propelled, in part, by Utah’s tight labor market and tariffs on steel, lumber, aluminum, and other products.

The expected completion date of the new Peruvian Park and White City school is 2022. The new Union Middle is scheduled to be done in 2023, and the grand opening of the west Draper school is slated for the fall of 2024.

These projects were prioritized following assessments of enrollment trends and the cost of completing needed repairs and safety upgrades to existing buildings, which determined incremental fixes would be more expensive than replacing the buildings.

They are among dozens of improvement projects authorized as part of the 2017 bond, including rebuilds underway now of Brighton and Hillcrest high schools and a renovation of Alta High; a rebuild of Midvalley Elementary; classrooms to replace portables at Corner Canyon High; six elementary office upgrades; and upgrades to infuse 18 elementary schools with natural light.