Treasure Mountain Junior High librarian Heidi Matthews had only been at the school for a few years before the 2002 Winter Olympics descended on Park City. The international event coincided with a library remodel, during which stacks of books were boxed up and put into storage, and Matthew’s office was temporarily moved to the weight room.
The junior high — which is featured on an Olympic pin from those Games — shut down for three weeks so students could revel in the festivities. Olympians used the facilities to train. Media slept in the gym. Park City School District staff created Olympic-related curriculum and were invited to chaperone various activities.
Matthews still remembers the excitement of athletes competing on the same slopes where Park City’s own cultivated their skills. Andres Johnson, a 2006 graduate from The Winter Sports School, was only in sixth grade when he secured his spot as the first ceremonial jumper in the grand opening of the K90 and K120 Nordic ski jumps in the fall of 2000 at Utah Olympic Park. He started competing two years later, at age 13.
But as Matthews watched the competitors go for gold, she couldn’t help but wonder which of the athletes had an overdue book. Her unique perspective as a longtime librarian captures the spirit of a school that’s always been about more than academics.
Back then, Matthews can vividly recall a sense of anticipation and change hanging over Park City. More than two decades later, the same feelings are present. Yet they’re now tinged with the bittersweet nostalgia that comes with the end of an era.
Treasure Mountain Junior High has stood for more than 40 years as a rite of passage for generations of students matriculating through the Park City School District, but the current cohort will be the last as the building is set to shutter at the end of the school year.
Built in 1982, Treasure Mountain originally served as a new middle school to accommodate a growing student population and the need for updated, modern facilities. Fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes were held in the building, which was under the leadership of Dr. Brian Schiller and former Superintendent Richard Goodworth.
As one of the oldest buildings in the school district, known for its lack of windows, narrow hallways and peculiar design, officials debated closing the school for years. However, the possibility didn’t become a reality until voters approved a $79 million general obligation bond in 2021 to help fund infrastructure improvements and the district’s master plan.
Matthews joked that it’s about time.
“The district did look at (keeping it open) and it was like, there are a lot of good things about the school, but to bring it back up to where it needed to be would be more expensive,” Matthews said. Research conducted around 2015 found that renovating the school building would cost upwards of $23 million to align with the school district’s standards.
She remembered about 10 years ago when Treasure Mountain teachers joined Running with Ed, the relay-race fundraiser for Park City Education Foundation, with a ’70s-themed team “Stayin’ Alive” to honor the fact that the building was still standing and the educators were still there.
Now the community relations specialist for the district’s Family and Community Engagement Team (FACE), Matthews’ career in education started in the 1990s as a high school English teacher in Washington State.
She moved to Utah about eight years later and spent a few years working in the Jordan School District. After a divorce, Matthews couldn’t imagine grading papers as a single mother, so she obtained a library media certification. She earned her first job as a librarian in the Park City School District in 2000 at what was then Treasure Mountain Middle School.
Matthews remembered walking into a welcoming, friendly environment on her first day. The faculty was tight-knit, but the new hires were tasked with heading the social committee, forcing them to quickly become familiar with the staff. The holiday parties of the early 2000s were so iconic that teachers from other buildings paid membership dues to the Treasure Mountain committee just so they could attend.
Newly on her own with two daughters, Matthews also remembered the first electricity bill she received at her Park City home. Teachers were paid month to month, and she didn’t have enough money to pay the unexpectedly high invoice. But Matthews didn’t have to stress. A group of eighth-grade teachers rallied together and presented her with a check that allowed her to keep the power on.
That kind of thing isn’t uncommon at Treasure Mountain, where the school has been built around a culture of caring for the community. Matthews said the staff knew they were in a special place and respected each other every day. Focused, laughter and lucky are the words that come to her mind.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the library was the only place where televisions showed the news about the tragedy unfolding in New York City. Matthews said adults were in and out all day, trying to keep tabs on what was happening. She also recalled when a staff member suffered a heart attack during a morning faculty meeting. A nurse-turned-teacher was there to help.
There were countless weddings, birthdays, funerals and losses that the staff, and students, endured together over the 16 years Matthews worked in the building. She recalled a “Thriller” dance before winter break, student-faculty basketball games, the seventh-grade talent show, Minute to Win It games and the end-of-the-year staff party.
Treasure Mountain staffers were thrilled that Matthews was a licensed teacher as well as a librarian, giving her unique insight into the inner workings of a classroom, how students learn and what support is needed. She met with sixth graders once a week to help empower them to build lifelong skills such as research, identifying credible information and critical reading.
Matthews’ role shifted over the years. One of the biggest challenges was the grade realignment process that started around 2002. It was a three-year period of transition that moved the sixth and seventh grade students to Ecker Hill Middle School, which completed reconstruction in 2005, while ninth grade students went to Treasure Mountain.
The staff tweaked the curriculum to meet state standards for older students, and Matthews said library offerings were overhauled to bring in higher-level books touching on topics such as history, health and loss.
One thing no one realized at the time, though, was how much space the bigger kids would need. They also came with bigger personalities, with around 700 kids between 13 and 15 years old learning how to navigate the world as they came of age.
Matthews said she never thought she’d like teaching middle grade, and it takes a special kind of crazy, yet it’s a time she looks back fondly on.
Working with the students made it worthwhile, but so did people like former Park City Principal Bob O’Connor; Julie Cannon; Susie Graves; Wanda Taylor; Dianne Vance; Doug Pain; Phil Schneider; Kevin McIntosh; Megan McKenna; David McNaughton; Emily Sutherland; Cory Potts; Ali Gallagher; and others. In the library, the goal is to help people understand — and it’s a place where most people don’t mind being.
“It’s about teaching, being with kids, supporting reading culture, learning culture,” she said. “I love learning and working collaboratively with other teachers on shared standards, taking some weight off of them.”
Matthews left Treasure Mountain in 2016 after she was elected president of the Utah Education Association. She returned to the district about three years ago.
With another grade realignment process and reductions in force underway, Matthews is excited to transition back to library media services at Park City High School for the 2025-26 school year.
Treasure Mountain is set to be torn down later this year to make way for a new athletics facility with fields dubbed the Treasure Mountain Sports Complex. Construction is scheduled to start this summer.
The school will serve as a relay point for Running with Ed on Saturday, with the theme “Running Through Memory Lane.”
The school district is also hosting a final community event, “A Sweet Goodbye,” for Treasure Mountain from 4 to 6 p.m. on June 4. There will be an open house and final walk-through of the school with sweet treats and ice cream available. More information will be announced.
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