“It has been a long time coming,” said Nebo School District Superintendent Chris S. Sorensen before a crowd of parents, students and district and civic officials gathered outside the school’s main entrance. “It’s been very exciting to see the school progress from an alfalfa field to where we are now.”

The event was one of four ribbon cutting ceremonies held by the Nebo district on Monday that opened four new schools. The other ceremonies were held at East Meadows Elementary School, 1287 S. 2130 East, Spanish Fork; Foothills Elementary School, 412 S. 810 East, Salem; and Orchard Hills Elementary School, 168 E. 610 South, Santaquin.

Sorensen said the district has never opened four schools on one day before. The three new elementary schools were all built using the same design and cost just more than $9 million each. The junior high school cost more than $14 million.

The schools were paid for through a $140 million bond issue that was approved by voters in 2004. Several additional new schools being paid for through the bond issue are due to be completed by the district during the next several years.

Located at 362 E. 1200 North in Mapleton, the new junior high school has 196,680 square feet of floor space and 18 acres of playing fields. The school has two full gyms and one “cafetorium” where students will both eat lunch and attend assemblies. Also included are two computer classrooms, two business labs and one media center.

Approximately 900 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders from Mapleton and southeastern Springville began class at the new school on Tuesday. The school has a staff of about 50 people; many members of the staff came from the former Springville Middle School which has been converted into an elementary school.

“This is a momentous occasion for Mapleton,” said Nebo School Board Member J. Collin Allan. The new junior high will provide a place “where kids can come to learn and learn to dream,” he said.

Mapleton Junior High School Principal Suzanne Kimball said she and her staff began moving into the new school at the end of the 2005-06 school year. “We’ve been here all summer doing everything from placing furniture to figuring out where the computers are going to go,” she said.

Dennis Cecchini, vice president and chairman of the board for MHTN Architects of Salt Lake City, presented the school with a $500 donation during the ceremony. MHTN Architects designed the Mapleton school with a lot of windows in order to allow in natural light, Cecchini said.

The entire building is wired for computers in a manner that will allow for technological upgrades in the future, Cecchini said. “The quality (of the building) is as good as you’ll see anywhere,” he said.

This story appeared in The Springville Herald on page A1.