The first year at Grand Junction's new high school comes to a close
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Students at Grand Junction High School have finished their first academic year in the new, $145 million building.
In 2021, Mesa County voters approved a bond measure to replace the old high school, which dated back to 1956 and had serious foundation and structural issues that were impossible to repair.
Over the years, the old school expanded, sprawling to seven separate buildings. The new facility consolidates the campus into a 250,000 square-foot, three-story school.
“In a way, it brings the whole school together, not just physically, but as a community, being less spread out,” said Dermot Lynch, a senior who attended both the old and new buildings.
He spent one of the last days of his high school career attending an impromptu parking lot cookout — then presenting a final project in his modern literature class.
The new building is designed using an academy structure. The language arts classes are in their own wing, the science classrooms are grouped together, etc.
The new school has a single entrance, which Principal Jory Sorensen made safety decisions. The old school had 64 entrances.
“There's no reason for the school just to be wide open, always. We close the interior hallway doors between classes, and that's another safety measure,” said Sorensen.
Security cameras dot corners on the outside of the building. Sorensen says 150 cameras are part of the safety measures at the new building.
GJHS is the largest of the five high schools in the Grand Valley.
A school district boundary change coincided with the opening of the new building, adding 400 students for a total enrollment of 1,834. The capacity of the new facility is 1,850 students, according to Sorensen.
Last year voters approved a $190 million bond for building and security upgrades at schools across District 51. Central High School and Fruita Monument High School will be two of the bigger projects paid for by the bond. CHS is in need of ADA accessibility and a more secure front entrance.
At FMHS, plans call for an addition to the building that would hold more classrooms, replacing portable trailers. Construction on those improvements will start in early 2026, according to the school district.
Anara Munkhtogoo, who was on student council and worked on organizing the farewell tours of the old GJHS building, took an anatomy final in room 325 on the afternoon of one of the last days of her high school career. Munkhtogoo played tennis and volleyball, and saw a huge difference between the old, leaky gym, and the new facility with student seating on a balcony overlooking the court.
“I think the freshmen and sophomores are really benefiting from the new school. It's just a little more structured,” she said.
Grand Junction High School has 98 teachers and 130 staff. Teachers share classrooms, sometimes moving two or three times a day, to maximize utilization of the building.
That system still needs a little work. Sorensen says a committee worked to refine the schedule for next semester, so teachers have enough time to prepare between classes, and aren’t traveling as far if they do have to move rooms.
“We put out the floor plans of this whole building, and we said, okay, how can we structure this so that a teacher who teaches English is always going to be in a specific area and it will make sense,” he said.
In the science section of the school, a purple glow came from the window of Matt Garhart’s classroom. A grow light over a tray of sprouts shined out into the hallway. Across from the classroom doors, counter-height tables greet students between classes, offering a place to do some last-minute studying, or chatting.
During the test, Munkhtogoo looked up at a cross section of a kidney on the projector, writing answers as Garhart asked about different structures on each slide. Munkhtogoo is going to Colorado Mesa University to start pre-med studies, and looks forward to playing club sports in college.
On the other side of the building, Lynch and his classmates evaluate each other’s final projects in a modern literature class, taught by Megan Read. After the lit final, Lynch, the senior class president, will work on his graduation speech. He’s considering a degree in secondary education at CMU.
More graduations are in store for Sorensen, who has been principal at GJHS for two years, his first time in the role at the high school level. Before this, he was principal at Redlands Middle School, and then at Grand Valley Middle School in Parachute.
“I feel like I'm still learning, so being a lifelong learner is super important. This is the 16th year I've been a principal, and no two years, no two days hardly, have been the same,” he said.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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