When students return to Juan Diego Catholic High School this fall, they’ll find a transformed campus — the latest in a series of significant improvements.

At the heart of the current construction is a 400-seat black box theater, designed for flexible configurations from lecture-style to theater-in-the-round. The theater and accompanying green room are slated for completion by the end of 2025.

Adjacent to it are three new classrooms, a collaborative learning space and a courtyard — all expected to open this fall. The upgrades, including enclosed maintenance facilities, a redesigned parking lot and new sidewalks, are funded by a $14 million ALSAM Foundation grant, named in honor of Sam and Aline Skaggs. Construction is being led by Ekman Construction, owned by 2015 JDCHS graduate Cooper Ekman.

These additions follow recent renovations including science labs, a new tech center, library testing stations, upgraded tennis courts, an expanded lunchroom and a remodeled school store.

Student leaders are actively involved in planning the use of a second courtyard near the lunchroom, said JDCHS assistant principal Nate Tack.

“They’ll be deciding how to make it functional for students, a patio with tables or some other idea. They're conceptualizing what they want,” he said. “I'm excited to see how kids are going to make this place flourish. The school already looks different from when I was here, and I got to admit, I’m a bit envious. I graduated in 2011 and the school still looked the same up until five years ago.”

Black box theater and classrooms

Located near the south entrance, the new 1,400-square-foot black box theater will feature floor-to-ceiling glass and oversized doors for moving props and sets.

“It's going to be wrapped in glass all the way around; you'll get a big glass look similar to the existing style so it ties in,” Tack said. 

Next door are three new classrooms — still unassigned as of mid-summer — and a collaboration room with views of the Wasatch Mountains, multiple whiteboards and TVs.

“This corner room is my new favorite spot in the whole building,” he said. “It’s a flexible space for students to do projects and collaboration.”

The new hallway includes large windows which overlook a courtyard.

“As the assistant principal, I refer to it as a secure zone. The kids will be able to freely go in here during the school day,” he said.

Science and Technology Center

The Sam & Aline Skaggs Science Learning Center opened in August 2023 with eight science lab-classrooms.

“It’s the new model in science education where the classroom is the lab,” Tack said. “We used to have eight classrooms and four labs, we subbed them all out for our classes — chemistry, biology, environmental science, anatomy and physiology.”

One of the completed projects at Juan Diego Catholic High includes the virtual reality lab, a partnership with Dreamscape and Arizona State University. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

The $5 million project was followed by a $1.5 million ALSAM Foundation grant to create a tech center featuring a VR programming suite, collaboration spaces and a computer lab.

“Originally this space was envisioned for elementary classrooms as above here is the elementary school, but we left it as flex space, and it was never utilized. Last year, we renovated it,” he said.

The lab is part of a partnership with Dreamscape and Arizona State University — and a favorite of Principal Galey Colosimo.

“When we commissioned it, it was the only virtual reality lab for a high school in the United States,” Colosimo said. “Now there's two, there's one in Arizona, and then there's ours. It goes way beyond the goggles. I went on an underwater activity called ‘Alien Zoo’ that the kids do in the biology curriculum. It's a mythical zoo, but they learn about all sorts of biology components. It’s amazing.”

Tack added: “They learn about things which tie into a biology lesson. They analyze and discuss what they found. For example, in biology they may talk about cell development and they can see what it looks like and learn how it applies.”

The lab includes external access so students from other schools can visit.

Lunchroom, store and library

The lunchroom now seats 900 students, thanks to an expansion completed in August 2024 using internal funds. 

Construction on the 25-year-old Skaggs campus in Draper has included improvements for the elementary, middle and high schools. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

“We redo one area, then another like dominoes. We needed more space in the lunchroom, but before we could do that, we had to move the school store,” Tack said.

The new store now has an outside entrance and loading dock.

“It allows easier access for parents and guests; they don’t have to go around the maze of the building,” he said.

The library’s computer lab was transformed into a dedicated testing center with a dozen individual stations. The rest remains a center for reading.

“We have resisted the urge to shrink our library like so many schools are because we push reading. Our whole school stops everything for a portion of time every day to read. Having tangible books is the best way to deliver that to high school and middle school students. Students can take a class period in the library and putting them in this academic environment raises expectations, and they do better. They’re engaged with books; there's kids in here every period, every day,” Tack said.

Elementary and middle school changes

The upgrades began with the St. John the Baptist Elementary School, where shade structures were added over the playground and turf replaced muddy areas. As elementary and St. John the Baptist Middle School students expanded to use high school classroom space, the need for additional high school facilities increased.

“Middle school science still needs a little bit of a makeover,” he said, noting upcoming improvements include a new single-use restroom and an office remodel.

Athletics and outdoor spaces 

Five new blue tennis courts were built using 18 inches of concrete and post-tension cables.

“It was fun to see as I've never seen tennis courts be built; they are designed to last 50 years,” Tack said.

The parking lot was reconfigured, and a new sidewalk now encircles the buildings.

“We have a ton of people enjoy walking through here all the time,” he said.

Ongoing impact and future plans

“We've been doing construction since 2020, it will change the game for us,” Tack said. “We've added space that allows us to grow larger. You build a building, and 25 years ago, there were a lot of things we thought were helpful, like the seven computer labs. We’ve since eliminated them all but two because our needs have changed and kids nowadays bring their own computers to school. We now use most of those computer labs for classrooms, which held us off on this project for a couple years.”

Juan Diego opened in 1999 with 140 students and peaked at 850 in 2014–15. Current enrollment is 750, with the elementary school steady at 600 and middle school growing from 250 to 350 students.

In the next five years, the school plans to build an indoor fieldhouse with a track, weight room and practice facilities behind the baseball field.

“From a growth perspective, we would like to be 650 students in the elementary, 400 in the middle school and 800 in high school,” he said. “We have a lot to offer; I like seeing the potential of our campus.”