The following opinion was written and submitted by Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Superintendent Kelly McGovern.
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ROCK SPRINGS — The doors are opening January 4, 2022!
The Rock Springs Tigers are preparing to expand from James Drive to Stagecoach Avenue; this new campus will allow for the steady stream of Orange and Black to spread over to the other side of town. Sweetwater County School District Number One is excited to update our community on the progress of our new Rock Springs Satellite High School. Tuesday, January 4, 2022 marks the first day of second semester for Sweetwater #1 Schools following the Christmas Vacation.
The Satellite campus will serve approximately 160 students at any given time with 44,110 square feet at a price of $17,981,372 and is designated as phase one. Although the original plans have a student capacity of 160 students, strategic scheduling from RSHS administration has allowed for a student capacity of 220 students.
The District is planning to hold a community open house and ribbon cutting on Monday, January 24, 2022 from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. at the Satellite Campus. All are welcome to attend the new Tiger addition.
As future growth is realized in the years to come, the school is master planned in such a way that additions can be added as the needs of our community change. Schools within the state of Wyoming are funded at a state level, through the State Construction Department, School Construction Division (SCD).
The funding is not accessible to schools for anything other than addressing state identified building capacity and condition needs. The District is very grateful to the SCD, and our local and state legislators for their support of and advocacy for our students, without this support this project would not have been possible.
This new campus has been in the planning stages for an extended time, starting back in 2006 when Sweetwater Number One developed a long-range facilities plan. The land for the Satellite Campus was obtained from the Bureau of Land Management; and is the current site of Sage Elementary, Pilot Butte Elementary, and Stagecoach Elementary.
The site was procured with the vision of housing multiple schools including a future high school. The District followed the careful process for several years demonstrating the dire need for a satellite school and the project officially kicked off on April 3, 2020. The new satellite school is a welcome addition to our community and to our District schools.
Three Most Cost Effective Remedy (MCER) Studies were conducted in 2014, 2015, and 2017. These studies resulted in the same conclusion: Rock Springs High School needed additional instructional space to educate students and the current RSHS campus had met its maximum capacity.
Kelly McGovern – Superintendent
Sweetwater County School District No. 1
