BY BRAD DEVEREAUX
Construction began Monday on the Rocky Mountain School in Cowley at a groundbreaking ceremony. The school will house students in grades 6 to 12 in the north end of Big Horn County School District No. 1.
The brief ceremony began with talks from board chairman Bryan Lee, Dan Odasz of Plan One Architects, Fred Bronnenberg of Groathouse Construction and Rocky Mountain High School senior class president Tyler Yates.
Odasz started off by thanking former District One Superintendent Kevin Mitchell, who was a major part of the project from the very beginning.
“Much thanks to Kevin. We’ll be thinking of you when this new school is being built,” he said.
Odasz said the building would be like the “big brother” of the nearby Rocky Mountain Elementary School, using the same brick and metal materials and some similar design elements.
“The two facilities will complement each other well,” he said.
Groathouse Construction president Bronnenberg spoke next and presented a silver shovel to board chairman Lee. He said the district showed perseverance, following the project through for several years.
“I’ve never seen a district go through something like this,” Bronnenberg said.
He thanked Facilities Director Michael Simmons for his hard work on the project.
Rocky Mountain Senior Class President Yates was up next. He said high school students are excited about the new school, though many of them will never walk its halls as a student. He said he looks forward to the positive changes in the district that will happen in the new facility, but noted, “It’s not the building that makes a school great, it’s the people in it.”
The groundbreaking ceremony then proceeded. Board members Koleen Sponsel, Ron McArthur, Dave Monk, Russ Boardman, Bryan Lee, legislators Elaine Harvey and Ray Peterson, Todd Wilder of the School Facilities Commission and student Tyler Yates each grabbed a shovel and scooped some dirt from where the foundation of the new school will sit.
The school is being built where the Bob Stevens farm once sat. Marge and the late Bob Stevens sold their 80-acre parcel of land to the town so it could be used for a future school. The lot was divided into sections. Part was used for the baseball field, another part was given to the school district for the current project the rest was turned into a residential subdivision.