If you pass Shepard Lane in Farmington you’re bound to drive by the private Challenger School. But you’ll also see construction going on right beside the main building. The school has been mainly for pre-school and beginning elementary grades. But with the number of students they have been receiving they had to expand past the outside portables that they have currently. Thus, the new building that is currently being built is next to the main building.

Challenger School, located at 1089 Shepard Creek Pkwy in Farmington is a private academy that initially was built just for pre-schoolers and kindergartners. It was first started in 1960 by an elementary school teacher by the name of Barbara Baker when she decided that kindergartners and preschoolers should have a better education than they were receiving at the time. Seeing that they needed to have a better grasp on phonics and reading as a whole before they started their schooling in the core elementary school years, Baker created Challenger. 

Since then they have been giving their students a jump on their reading education so they can have top reading and comprehension scores by the time they have to advance to the higher grades.

As time went on, and the amount of students grew they began to expand and provide more grades for kids. Now they have all of elementary and plan to grow to have junior high students as well. And with this new building that they have been working on since late last year, they will be able to hold classes for those grades as they planned.

“Challenger originally planned on this campus providing preschool and kindergarten programs only, but we have continued to expand as parents in Davis County have expressed interest in continuing a Challenger education through eighth grade for their children,” Jeff Davis, head of marketing said.

They predict that with the new edition of the Challenger School, they will be able to get rid of the portables that they have been using and move many of the grades into this building. They will then use that empty space to expand the playground for the pre-schoolers and kindergarteners. 

“Our expansion is funded through tuition revenue,” Davis said. “Challenger does not hold fundraisers or require any additional money, time, or service commitments.” 

According to Davis, they are currently on track to complete the new building by the coming school year. So students will have a fresh new building, and the preschoolers and kindergartners will have a larger playground.

As for any new projects that Challenger may have in the future, they have not given any details but they do plan to continue to expand as the need arises. They plan to expand into other states as well.

“We continue to grow in our five regions: California, Idaho, Nevada, Texas and Utah,” Davis said.