The United States Department of Defense announced today it is providing a $13 million grant to the Tooele County School District for a new high school.
The federal Public Schools on Military Installations Program provides funding for schools most seriously in need of new facilities. In addition to the federal grant, Tooele County School district has set aside about $2.7 million in matching funds for the new school, which did not require a tax increase or bond measure. Principal Robin Nielson says the benefits are two-fold.
“The school hopefully will become a hub of our community,” Nielson says. “We will be able to house community events as well as school events.”
Sixty-eight students in grades seven through twelve attend Dugway High School. It was built in 1959 and it’s 45 miles from the nearest school in Tooele. About three quarters of the student population live on Dugway Proving Ground while the rest are bussed in from Skull Valley and the town of Terra.
Nielson says the new building will accommodate up to 350 students in a more contemporary environment.
“We’d have adequate technology, the science labs would be updated and then the heating and cooling system would be modern and economical,” Nielson says.
Nielson says officials plan to break ground in the spring of 2014 on the same block as the existing high school. When the new school is complete in 2015, she says the old building will be demolished.
