When Deer Creek High School Principal Justin Kelly graduated from Wasatch High School in 1991, there were 130 students in his graduating class. When he began teaching in Wasatch County School District nine years later, there were about 200 students per graduating class. Now, that number has ballooned to about 670.
“When kids become numbers, they tend to be in trouble more because they’re trying to find other ways to come out. And so, this opportunity to have two high schools in the valley is really going to change kids’ chances in life,” Kelly said before a tour of the nearly finished Deer Creek High School on Thursday.
The high school is on track to be completed by June 1, when students participating in fall sports will be able to start using the athletic facilities. The school district plans to host an open house toward the end of July.
The finishing touches include the auditorium and the gymnasiums, as well as carpet and tile installation throughout the school. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hasn’t begun construction of its seminary on the site, which it will build and pay for.
Carpeting and tiling for much of Deer Creek High School is yet to be completed. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record 
The view outside from the second floor of Deer Creek High School’s main building. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record 
This room will serve as the metal and welding shops when Deer Creek High School opens in August. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record
The construction of the high school should be “a couple million” dollars under its $169 million budget, according to the district’s business administrator, Jason Watt.
Although the high school may have changed its name from Iron Horse in January 2025, the locomotive industry is still the inspiration for its architecture. That’s most evident in the commons area beyond the front entrance.
Its raised, arched ceiling has windows letting in natural light, resembling a train station. The commons will feature a large analog clock to complete the aesthetic.
“We’re going to have to teach the kids how to tell time,” Kelly joked.
The site served as the Heber Valley Railroad’s stockyard in the 1940s, hence the homage. The school district purchased the 52-acre property about six years ago.
Kelly explained that a priority of the school district was preserving the property’s original state as much as possible.
For example, the school district has preserved a drainage ditch, which often fills with overflow from Lake Creek and Silver Creek, running through the middle of the property.
The campus is split into two buildings on each side of the ditch, one housing the bulk of the classrooms and the other comprising the athletic wing.
For the most part, Deer Creek and Wasatch high schools offer the same amenities, though there are some differences.
For example, Deer Creek High School will feature a veterinary science lab designed to allow animals ranging from sheep to horses to easily enter the space.
Wasatch High School currently offers a veterinary science course, but “it’s a little more redneck” without a dedicated lab space, Kelly joked.
Starting in August, all students taking the veterinary science course will do so at Deer Creek High School.
The same can be said for Mountainland Technical College’s first campus in the Wasatch Back, which is being built on school district land next to Deer Creek High School and will also open in August.
Deer Creek will also include the district’s first child care center, and Wasatch High School will open a daycare around the same time, Kelly explained.
The daycares will accommodate employees’ children up to age 4. The district offers a preschool program for children aged 3 to 5.
High school students will be able to assist in the daycares for college credit through the district’s career and technical education programs.
Superintendent Garrick Peterson noted that having daycare will be a meaningful addition.
“There’s a great math teacher we lost two years ago. As soon as she heard this was coming in, she’s back,” he said.
Deer Creek High School is only a handful of hires away from being fully staffed for the upcoming school year.
Most of the teachers will come from Wasatch High School, but some will be external hires. For example, Wasatch High School’s sole drama teacher could not be expected to run Deer Creek’s theater program, too, Kelly explained.
Just as splitting teachers between high schools has gone smoothly, the splitting of students has exceeded expectations.
The district expected about 40% of Wasatch High School’s roughly 2,700 students to choose Deer Creek for the 2026-27 school year. But the split is much more even, with enrollment numbers between the two buildings within 20 students of each other as of Thursday, according to Kelly.
As principal, Kelly will have a unique challenge when Deer Creek High School opens in August: creating a school culture.
There is some culture-building he can start on his own — such as purchasing “26” jerseys for each sports team in honor of the opening year and overseeing the installation of a pole on which a river hawk, the school’s mascot, would roost — but for the most part, he wants students to lead the process.
For example, students will decide the nickname of the main gymnasium and create the fight song instead of having those characteristics decided for them.
“Our community sacrificed to have a second high school, to build it,” Kelly said. “And I want them to take that opportunity and build (culture) so that when future generations come here, they can be proud of what they started.”