Just after 9 a.m. on Tuesday, a soft-toned bell rang throughout the halls of Deer Creek High School. With one lesson over, the first-ever class of students at Deer Creek filled the halls.
Excited students passed between periods, talked with friends and checked in with teachers. Some frantically fast-walked throughout the halls, searching for their next classroom.
“Is the 200s hall this way?” one student asked health sciences teacher Jordanne Davidson before hurrying away.
Davidson herself walked the halls after a successful first period of teaching. She’s used to first period students being slow to wake up, but today, on the first day of school, Davidson said the room was lit with energy.
It’s an energy that Deer Creek High School Principal Justin Kelly felt as he stood outside the building on Tuesday morning to welcome students. It’s something Kelly did every year as Wasatch High School principal but, this year, welcoming the first class of students to his new school felt monumental.
“The teachers know the same energy that the kids are feeling with — this is new,” Kelly said. “We’re just feeding off everybody’s energy.”
With a brand new building to navigate, teachers are learning just as much as the students are, Kelly said. The learning curve itself includes more than just directions, though. Everything is brand-new, offering students and teachers the opportunity to be creative, learn as they go and make a few things up along the way.
“I’ve never been a part of an opening in a high school before in my life,” Kelly, a Wasatch High School alumni, said.
Students are encouraged to have a say in certain aspects of Deer Creek’s culture, including the school’s fight song.
“We do have a music melody to it, but we’re still working on the words, and so we’re going to give that out to the kids, and we’re going to refine that as the year goes on,” Kelly said.
He and his fellow administrators looked back on the first yearbook from Wasatch High School, published in 1913, for inspiration.
“They’re going to set the traditions that’s going to last for the next 127 years, but they may not get to experience it, just like that class of 1913 at Wasatch High,” Kelly said.
Walker Watt, 17, is a senior representative for Deer Creek High School’s student government. It’s an organization that he applied for to “try something new” and has found the experience to be a rewarding one.
Ahead of the first day at Deer Creek, Watt was tasked with asking fellow students what advice they would give to their classmates. Some said students should show up consistently to class and “don’t skip,” while others encouraged taking advantage of new and different opportunities.
Watt’s advice? Try new things.
“The best part is obviously building relationships, having fun,” Watt said. “I’d say don’t be afraid to embarrass yourself, because the other side of that is so much better than the rest.”
Tuesday morning, Watt’s mother took a photo of the senior by his car — a contrast to his first-day-of-school photo from kindergarten, climbing onto a yellow school bus.
“It’s just a cool full-circle moment,” Watt said.
Assistant Principal Amanda Porter shared a similar moment with her daughter, Addi Porter, on Addi’s first day at Deer Creek. The pair picked out their outfits together the night before and, Tuesday morning, took a photo in front of the Deer Creek sign in their new school sweaters.
“She’s in student government and so she’s been here for a week, but today still felt different,” Amanda said. “It’s this really cool moment that she’s the first graduating class, but it’s my first year here, too, and so we’re both getting to experience these really cool moments as mom and daughter.”
Amanda said the new high school feels “magical.” She said you could feel it even at Deer Creek’s first football game.
“There’s been these milestone moments where, yeah, we lost the football game. It didn’t matter,” Amanda said. “It was magic seeing those stands fill up.”
Assistant Principal Drew Camps Wofford said she watched students create new cheers and chants in real time at the same football game.
“The kids are like, ‘Can we do this cheer? Can we do that one?’ And it’s just all a blank slate where now they feel a lot of ownership,” Camps Wofford said. “The kids are just excited to learn all new things.”
Ownership of their new school culture is huge for both the kids and teachers, Camps Wofford said. It’s what gets everyone most excited.
“It was a lot of creative collaboration with the kids, too,” Camps Wofford said. “Like, how could we take that cheer we love and then make it Deer Creek?”
Deer Creek High School’s third Assistant Principal Lanay King said it has been a long summer trying to get ready for the new school opening. Seeing that come to fruition is worth the effort, King said.
“I think this building shows such a commitment to our students that we love you and believe in you enough to make opportunity available to you at this campus,” King said.
Most of all, King said she wants kids to come to school thinking “I’ve got this.”
Amanda Porter said the No. 1 question she and her fellow educators have gotten from the Wasatch Back community is: Are you ready?
Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record
Teachers and administrators have spent the summer learning about the school and preparing classrooms. The anticipation has built up for students to start their first day of classes. There’s still more to learn for administrators, teachers and students, but Kelly and his squad of assistant principals said everything takes time.
“We’ve all found our answer, but my answer is: We’re ready in the most important ways,” Amanda said.