Big Horn Elementary | Sheridan Co. School District #1

Malone Belton Abel’s design for the Big Horn Elementary School for solved a number of challenging problems.  Primary among these was the site constraint. The Wyoming School Facilities Commission mandated that the 40 acre site normally required for a K-12 campus be reduced to 17 acres.  This radically smaller site was already occuped by the newly constructed High School/Middle School, existing elemenatry school, playground area, waste water treatment facility,  bus loop and parking areas – all which were to remain in full use during construction.  Malone Belton Abel designed a school which fit the constrained site and met the needs of the students and staff.

The elementary school is currently being constructed in the cleared area to the left in the aerial photo.  The new building will be on two levels with the lower level daylighting out onto a K-2 playground and the upper level tying into the existing gymnasium structure.  Kindergarten and special education classrooms will be on the lower level with grades 1 through 5 on the upper level.

The Elementary School when complete will total 42,500 SF: 34,000 SF of new construction connected to 8500 SF of remodeled building. Portions of this older building were remodeled into vocational classrooms and administration spaces. The role of the existing gym will be expanded to cafeteria, gymnasium and assembly space for the elementary students.

The construction of this new elementary school along with the demolition of the old elementary school and the completion of the parking lots and bus loop will complete the campus, which has undergone a series of phased construction projects designed by our firm.  Budget for the elementary school and sitework is $8.4 million.  The building will be open for classes in August 2012.