The new Wayne High School, which is currently under construction immediately west of the old building in Bicknell, is nearing completion. Due to delays in shipping building materials, however, that school will not begin its school year until September 3.
The new building marks the merging of Wayne Middle School students into the high school, and WHS will join Piute, Bryce Valley and Escalante high schools where grades 7 – 12 are housed under one roof.
Loa Elementary and Hanksville Elementary will begin school on August 20, as originally planned.
Superintendent Randy Shelley announced the high school’s delayed start date on July 15, citing unforeseen supply chain issues. The 2024-25 school year also marks the first time the district will move to a four-day school week, and Mr. Shelley expects that high school students might end up attending a few Fridays this year to make up for August’s seven-day delay.
The new Wayne High School has been years in the making, and was largely made possible by state action to help fund its construction through a special grant under HB 475, which passed in early 2022. Of the old building, the oldest portions of which were built in 1957, only the gymnasium and auditorium will remain. The rest of the building will be demolished.
Once the district can obtain further funding, they have plans to demolish parts of the soon-to-be-vacated Wayne Middle School to make room for the construction of a new elementary school. That future school will replace Loa Elementary, which was constructed in 1953.
– The Byway