Farewell Treasure Mountain: Teachers, students, alumni honor Park City School’s history

PARK CITY, Utah — Treasure Mountain Junior High, a building that has served everyone from kindergartners to ninth-graders since 1982, received a fond, final send-off this week as teachers, alumni, and district leaders gathered to trade memories before classes end and the school is razed this fall.

“It’s such an honor to be in a place that has meant so much to this community,” longtime teacher and emcee Heidi Matthews said. “If these walls could talk, they’d tell stories of kindergarten through ninth graders in all their chaotic, brilliant glory. Talent shows, Penny Drives, first loves, parent-teacher conferences and a really great library competition that ‘got way too competitive.’”

‘Not just a building’

Superintendent Lyndsay Huntsman called the closure “a privilege wrapped in bittersweet emotion.”

“Today we don’t just mark the closing of a building; we recognize the lasting impact Treasure Mountain has had on generations of students, staff, and families,” Huntsman said. “The walls may be coming down, but the treasures will continue on with us. Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere, and that’s what Treasure Mountain gave us — knowledge, growth and experiences that go with us no matter where we go next.”

A principal’s riddle-filled past

Founding principal Brian Schiller appeared in a prerecorded video, nostalgic for the days when he “wore a suit or sport coat and tie to school every single day.”

“Treasure Mountain opened with about 340 students in grades five through eight, and we grew to 880 during my last year,” he said. “We began each morning with daily announcements, a joke and a riddle, ‘Good morning, ladies and germs,’ I’d say, and we ended with the lunch menu, which I always insisted ‘certainly does sound good to me,’ even though I never ate school lunch.”

Schiller’s tape drew laughter when he recalled eighth-graders sneaking into kindergarten rooms: “We finally had to make a rule, only two eighth-graders in a kindergarten room at a time.”

‘People don’t just work at Treasure; they treasure it’

Former principal Caleb Fine, set to lead Park City High School next year, framed the gathering as a lesson in relationship-driven education.

“Treasure isn’t just a school; it’s something more,” Fine said. “It’s a place that loves kids, truly cares about people and knows how to have a whole lot of fun. That feeling is part of the Treasure Mountain DNA. Let’s keep working hard, playing hard and, most importantly, loving hard. That’s what Treasure people do.”

An alumnus comes full circle

Current co-principal Isaiah Folau attended Treasure Mountain as a student before returning as an administrator.

“As cliché as it sounds, it truly is the end of an era,” Folau told the crowd. He recounted sitting “at those very same lunch tables with my best friends every morning as we navigated adolescence” and discovering a passion for history when teacher Mike McIntosh taught “a lesson about the haves and the have-nots.”

“Yes, the brick and mortar is coming to a close,” Folau said, “but those memories, those ideas, those experiences, they live on.” Citing the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, he added, “The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream will never die.”

From school to sports complex

Once the building is gone, the site will be reborn as a large-scale athletic hub. Park City Planning Commission cleared the way for the Treasure Mountain Sports Complex, which will include a 6,500-square-foot athletic support building featuring team rooms, a 3,400-square-foot press box with concession areas, eight tennis courts, two soccer fields, four batting cages, and at least 98 off-street parking spaces, along with new baseball and softball fields sporting electronic scoreboards.

‘Well done. Thanks for the memories.’

Before guests leafed through yearbooks or posed for photos, Matthews offered a final farewell,  “Well done, everyone. Thanks for the memories. Please stop running in the halls. Walk with a purpose.”