Sandy High School was originally built in 1934 and has been remodeled 7 times to accommodate 1,200 students. The student body now averages nearly 1,450 students.

So how bad is it?

That depends on your perspective. If you happened to be a student and found a need to use the 'facilities', then you might have a problem. According to the Facilities Task Force findings, there are only enough restrooms to accommodate a student body population of 820. For the remaining 600+ students, this means careful planning of liquid intake throughout the day. (See Rest Rooms for more information)

Waiting in line for the restroom may not be your biggest problem though. Just getting through the halls may be more of a challenge. For seven and a half decades, the community has been adding classrooms to the present buildings. But the basic hallways and stairwells cannot be expanded. Just like the traffic jams that occur around the I5 bridge and the I84 interchange during rush hour, the main arteries of the high school clog up as well.

But suppose that you've wisely planned your day and have learned to navigate through the traffic jams. Now it's time for lunch. Sandy High School's Commons Room, which serves as the cafeteria, was built in 1952. Per the fire marshal, the cafeteria can hold a maximum of 320 students at one time. The school currently has 3 lunch periods with the first one starting at 10:30 and the last lunch begins at 12:20. Even with the 3 lunch periods, the school has had to open up the lunches for juniors and seniors to encourage them to get their lunch offsite. To feed everyone onsite would require 5 lunch periods beginning at 9:45 and ending at 1:45. (See Cafeteria for more information)

But how are the classrooms? Some teachers do not have a permanent classroom. And many classes are overcrowded resulting in students standing or sitting on the floor. Class sizes used to be capped at 35. But since 2002, due to increased numbers of students lecture type classrooms now must accommodate 36-40 students. Non classroom space (Library, woodshop, computer labs, etc.) are sometimes used as instructional rooms. (See Instructional Space for more information)

Having survived the day, our student now finds himself heading for the bus. There are 22 regular bus routes serving the high school plus several special education busses. Only 13 busses can load or unload at a time creating quite a bottleneck for students and traffic in the front of the school and on Bluff Rd. (See Bus Transportation for more information)

Bottom line - Sandy High School is overcrowded. And continuing to add modulars across the soccer field won't solve the basic infrastructure problems associated with adding on to a building that was originally built in 1934. The time has come to build a new high school. Vote YES!