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South Jordan Journal

And the winning name is … Mountain Creek Middle

Jun 10, 2019 11:31AM ● By Julie Slama

Future students and parents can catch a glimpse of the inside of Mountain Creek Middle School before schools opens in August by logging on the school’s website. (Photo courtesy of Mountain Creek Middle School)

By Julie Slama | [email protected]

First there were hundreds of suggestions. From those, five were selected as possible names for the new South Jordan middle school. One clear winner emerged — Mountain Creek Middle — after future students and families voted for the name of the new school being built near Kestral Rise Road and Bingham Rim Road in South Jordan.

Jordan Board of Education recently approved the name, announcing it with the names of other schools that are expected to open this fall. The others include Mountain Point Elementary School in Bluffdale, Hidden Valley Middle School in Bluffdale and Ridge View Elementary School in Herriman.

Mountain Creek Middle will open to about 1,000 students in grades 7 through 9 and will be a Chinese dual immersion school. The school will offer core classes in English, math, social studies and science as well as elective courses in music, art, dance, French and Spanish. 

The other four top name choices included West Mountain, Golden Ridge, Sunrise and Prospector Creek, which was Principal Mike Glenn’s personal favorite as it tied into the mining history of the area.

In May, there was a survey available for the community to vote on Mountain Creek’s mascot and colors after the initial 500 responses brought in suggestions.

“We had from bears and moose to ducks submitted as ideas,” Glenn said. “We don’t want to duplicate other mascots.”

While the school is being built around the colors of copper and dark blue, with some tans added in, Glenn said those are not the school colors.

“We have had some people suggest those colors that are found in our (classroom) pods, auditorium, gym, façade and cafeteria, but those are part of the building design. We want people to vote on our school colors,” he said. 

Once decisions are made, the school name and mascot will be laid in school colors in tile in the entryway this summer.

In addition to tiling the entrance, the hallways and cafeteria will be tiled, large screen televisions connected, and the gym and dance floors will be installed in June and July. Painting and carpet should be completed by summer, he said.

The design, created by VCBO architectural firm, is the same as Sunset Ridge Middle in West Jordan, with modifications, such as installing a secure vestibule at the main entrance and adjustments in the stairways and learning communities, he said.

The school, under construction by DWA general contractor, will have a maker room, pottery room with a kiln, a career and technical education room where a 3-D printer could be used among six science rooms, four art rooms, a family and consumer science room featuring nine cooking stations, a dance room, a fitness room, a band room and a choir room. 

The cafeteria, which seats about 630 students, will have four serving lines and a commons area for students to eat meals. Seating in the auditorium will be for about 800 students, and the media center will include a computer lab. The gym will have multiple basketball courts and a track, and to the south of the school there will be a multi-use sports field.

Before the summer rolls around, Glenn, who is being joined by Wendy Harmon as assistant principal, will continue hiring faculty and staff. By early May, 32 of the 40 teachers were hired as well as the counseling staff and some office personnel. A second assistant principal is expected to be named this summer.

This summer also will allow student leaders — after an election this spring at Copper Mountain Middle School, where most students will come from — to begin planning a welcome week and time capsule. 

The spring vote will elect four incoming ninth-grade and four incoming eighth-grade officers. A fall election at Mountain Creek is being planned, which will bring one more ninth-grade officer, an additional eighth-grade officer and five seventh-graders to the student council.

“We will meet in the summer to start building positive momentum and plan welcome week and ribbon cutting. We want to have the students be a part of the planning of these,” Glenn said.

While no date has been set for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Glenn said it will be posted on the school website, mountaincreekmiddle.org, which currently has photos of the progress of the new school. On the Jordan School District website, families can join Glenn for a virtual tour.

“It’s moving right along, making progress,” he said. “We’re really appreciating the community support and are excited for the school to open.”