Centennial, CO – For Fort Morgan, their new middle school isn’t just a school. It’s a community center that residents and neighbors, old and young, can take advantage of. Because of this, it wasn’t just the students and staff that were excited at the prospect of replacing the 88-year-old middle school. That was last summer. Today, students walk the halls of a state-of-the-art, 114,000 SF facility with a STEM lab, natural lighting, two gyms, and large cafeteria/auditorium. To commemorate the first day, Haselden gave out over 500 backpacks to the students to help them begin the school year prepared.
The project didn’t start out easy. The site was covered with alfalfa, which was rumored to have tenuous roots going down 25 feet. “I’ve never run into a project where you had to decide what to do with alfalfa,” quipped Haselden project manager Greg Wegner. With that removed, the project was then inundated with an unprecedented amount of rain. At the ribbon cutting, Morgan County School District RE-3 Board of Education President Connie Weingarten stated, “In spite of all the weather problems early on, our contractor did a great job getting us here today . . . for that I am very thankful.”
The $30.8M school was designed by Wold Architects and Larson Incitti. The 20-acre site includes a full-size sod football field, paved parking lot, and multi-lane parent drop-off/pick-up area. Natural light is used throughout the building and is supplemented with energy-saving LED lighting, which is also used for site lighting.
Ms. Weingarten summed up the meaning of the new facility to the community: “This new building will allow us to fulfill our mission of great schools for a great community. It will be a place for community members to gather for concerts, sporting events, and all kinds of other activities. A school like this can serve as a springboard for growth in our community. . . . It’s time to put the welcome mat by the front door and invite the neighbors in.”
Images courtesy of Haselden Construction
