The Soaring Wings school, growing into its new space

Soaring Wings Montessori School Photo: Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — It’s hard to miss the construction of the building at the corner of SR 224 and Old Ranch Road at the Soaring Wings Montessori School. Not unlike how school children outgrow their clothes periodically, Soaring Wings outgrows its space periodically as well.

Growing steadily since they started the business in their living room in Park Meadows in 1987, it outgrew their home in 1992. It keeps outgrowing its new spaces including the Park City Library Building after 20 years, the Summit Center off I-80, and the current space on which the little blue building used to sit.

This building opened in 2013 and Duna Strachan, Executive Director and Founder said that it was, “A dream come true.” At the time, the little blue building was owned by an architect who was married to a city planner, the parents of a student at the school. They all teamed up to create the vision that is today’s modern, expanding campus.

Soaring Wings has been planning this expansion for many years. They currently have eight classrooms with a capacity of 150 students. When the additions are completed in December, they’ll have ten classrooms with a capacity of 180 students and a faculty of 26.

They currently have programs for Infants through eighth grade and are adding two additional classrooms, one for elementary and one for middle school.

Strachan said, “It will allow our elementary and middle school to offer the true Montessori experience where students can continue to progress at their own pace as they have since the infant clas and use their academic skills to plan and carry out meaningful projects to benefit themselves and others.” She added, “At Soaring Wings children follow their own interests to discover their joy for learning and for life.”

In a Montessori school, the middle school students may be ahead of the standards academically and spend a lot of time working on projects that contribute to the community. These can be projects like raising chickens and selling the eggs or working a farm or a small business. 

The addition will include maker spaces for woodworking, crafting, printing, sewing, robotics, and art. Currently, the class is working on a baking business. They are planning to visit a bakery and a few entrepreneurs to get their baking business going.