Reaching New Peaks
Capital Campaign
As of now, we are entering the final phase of our $5 million dollar capital campaign Reaching New Peaks to fund an expansion of our campus. We plan to break ground in 2025, but we must raise another 2.2 to complete our project.
Reaching
New Peaks
PROJECT DETAILS:
Please help us complete the final fundraising phase of our Reaching New Peaks capital campaign. The key goals of this project are to: reduce class sizes, attract more full-time faculty, enhance instructional excellence through specially designed spaces for lab science courses, online learning, visual arts and our comprehensive school counseling program, offer dedicated Honors sections in core courses and add an amphitheater gathering space.
WHY NOW:
As our school program offerings continue to advance to better meet the needs of our student-athletes, the demand for our existing school facilities has reached capacity. In conjunction with the new Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Mountain Center at the Utah Olympic Park and the potential of the Winter Olympics returning to the region, we want to plan for this growth and need to make these additions happen now to better meet the educational needs of our existing student population.
WE NEED YOUR HELP:
Please donate at any level to ensure that we may build and maintain the Winter Sports School so that it strengthens our mission and commitment to the Park City community. Our success will be a testament to our community’s support of future generations’ athletic dreams and academic pursuits.
HIGHLIGHTS
The projections for the 8,732 square-foot expansion include adding:
8,732 SQFT
5 CLASSROOMS
INCLUDING A SCIENCE LAB & ONLINE LEARNING ROOM
5 BATHROOMS
2 MULTI-FIXTURE // 2 SINGLE-OCCUPANT // 1 FACULTY/STAFF
COLLABORATIVE SPACE
FACULTY WORKSPACE, SMALL MEETING ROOMS AND STUDENT LOUNGE
AMPHITHEATER & COURTYARD
SEATS 350 // SHADE CANOPY // OUTDOOR CLASSROOM
COURTYARD WITH TABLES FOR LUNCH AND ADDITIONAL OUTDOOR COLLABORATIVE LEARNING SPACE
NOTHING GREAT
HAPPENS WITHOUT
A GOAL.
Please donate at any level to ensure that we may build and maintain the Winter Sports School so that it strengthens our mission and commitment to the Park City community. Our success will be a testament to our community’s support of future generations’ athletic dreams and academic pursuits.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
NAMING OPPORTUNITIES:
• 1M New Wing (Olympic Wing)
• 500K Amphitheater
• 250K Commons
• 150K Skybridge + Courtyard
• 100K Science Lab
• 75K Online Learning Classroom
(renovated space in current building)
• 50K Sport Court
• 25K Classroom
• 15K Meeting Rooms (2)
• 10K Benches (4)
FUNDRAISING GOAL
Total project cost
$1.1 M Expansion Phase 1 // $3 M Expansion Building // $800K Amphitheater // $100K School Renovations
$5M
Raise to date
$2.8M
GOAL TO RAISE
$2.2M
Board Raised
$200K
Benefits for
Student Learning
Reduced Class Sizes
Smaller class sizes give students more opportunity to share their voices and receive more individual feedback on their work.
More Full-Time Faculty
Having multiple teachers in each subject area will also allow for increased collegiality and lesson-plan sharing to enhance instruction and ensure best practices within the discipline.
Enhanced Instructional Excellence
With two sections of each course, teachers will be able to focus on fewer preparations each day to create even more engaging, rigorous learning activities, and improve their instructional practice.
Honors Sections in Core Courses
The present model at WSS requires students of mixed ability levels to be in the same class, which does have some benefits, but ultimately limits how much the high-achieving students can accomplish in a school year.
More Flexible Social Groupings
The constant ability to mix and match students between two sections would keep classes fluid and dynamic, which ultimately would enrich the students’ academic and social experience.
AUDITORIUM GATHERING SPACE
A spacious and high-tech auditorium will allow for our entire school to gather for community-building events and special presentations.
Who We Are
The Winter Sports School (WSS) in Park City, UT, founded in 1994, is an instructor-led, college preparatory program for dedicated winter athletes (grades 9 through 12), with an academic calendar running from April through November each year. Our students pursue their athletic goals during the winter months without compromising their academic goals. We officially began operating as a Utah State Charter School in July 2014. Our current enrollment is 117 students. Our mission is to provide our students with the tools, support and balance necessary for them to achieve the highest possible levels of success in education and life.
Our vision is to be the leading college-preparatory school for dedicated student-athletes. There are tradeoffs students and families make selecting WSS, including going to school all summer and tackling a rigorous academic program of study at an accelerated pace in a condensed calendar. Our students have a passion for sport and demonstrate a high level of commitment to both their academic and athletic ambitions.
As of June 2023, 27 WSS current students and alumni graduates (since 2015) are on National Team rosters in two countries. WSS celebrates 24 Winter Olympians who have earned 15 Olympic medals in 48 Olympic Games appearances. WSS alumni have earned 11 Overall World Cup titles, 82 Individual World Cup titles, 33 World Championship medals and hundreds of World Cup podiums. Notable graduates include Olympians Ted Ligety, Julia Mancuso, Steve Holcomb, Alex Hall, Colby Stevenson, Sarah Hendrickson, Joss Christensen, Andrew Weibreicht, Ellie Ochowitz, Resi Steigler, Bryan Fletcher, Anders Johnson, Izzy Atkin, Zoe Atkin, Nick Page, Cole McDonald, Ben Loomis, Jared Shumate and Stephen Schumann.
The main beneficiaries of this project will be our current and future student population, our faculty and all of their family members. WSS is strictly an academic institution. Our students choose the athletic sport club that best fits their training and coaching needs anywhere in the world. It also means that we can educate all students, competing in any sports discipline, as opposed to only a subset often served at other sports academies that will integrate athletic and academic programs. As such, we serve student-athletes in every ski discipline as well as other Olympic sports including soccer, mountain biking, hockey, sport climbing and equestrian sports. We attract students nationwide as well as locally from Heber City, Kamas, Midway, North Salt Lake, Ogden, Park City, Salt Lake Valley and eastern Summit County.
As a public charter school, we receive considerably less funding per student than the public school district. To achieve our ambitious educational goals for students and our school, we rely on private contributions to supplement public funds.
We report directly to the Utah State Charter School Board and the Utah State Board of Education. We enjoy a very friendly and cooperative relationship with the Park City School District, but we are not a district school. Those of our students that live within the district bounds are eligible to participate in extra-curricular activities including Park City High School sports teams. As a State Charter School, we are not a taxing authority, so we do not receive funds directly from Park City or Summit County property taxes but receive alternate Charter School Local Replacement funding which provides some portion of the locally generated property tax we are unable to access. We do not receive any funds from the Park City Education Foundation.
To receive more information about the Winter Sports School and the Reaching New Peaks Capital Campaign, please contact Tess Miner-Farra at tminerfarra@wintersportsschool.org.
Donate Today
Gifts to the Annual Giving can be made via our Online Donation Page, where donors can also arrange to give a gift in monthly installments. Winter Sports School is a non-profit 501c3 organization so all donations are tax-deductible. WSS Tax ID #87-0565973