Pieces come together for new school

Thursday was a big day for Smith Valley students and staff.

Not only was it the last day of school for this year, it was the first day of a school building that will be open for use this fall.

In what Principal Mike Welling said will be a two-day process, crews tried to hoist by crane the first of 14 sections of the 192- by 64-foot modular building.

The structure started to buckle as the lifting began, however.

Welling said the crane operators then landed on the option of supporting the bottom of the building while it's being lifted, then setting it on wheels to roll it into place. The new foundation at the lower campus was poured earlier this spring.

Eventually, all the sections will be in place and fastened together, ready to provide seven new classrooms for grades K-5, a library, schoolwide computer lab, Title I and Special Education space, and administrative offices.

The upper campus will be mothballed and sixth- through eighth-graders will move into the existing school house at the lower campus.

All grades will use the gym.

The expansion and upgrade was made possible exactly a year ago Thursday - June 9, 2004 - when voters approved a $1.35 million bond issue for the project.

Welling said the building project cost is expected to come in at $1,313,990, leaving room in the budget for remodeling the current lower-campus building. Plans are to upgrade bathrooms, recarpet, paint and possibly convert one room to a science lab for the upper grades.

An older mobile unit which had housed classrooms was sold and removed from the campus earlier this year.

Excavation for the tanks, lines and drain fields for the new septic system began March 8, and the system was put into use over spring break.

Throughout the process, staff, students and parents pitched in to help box up and move supplies from one space to another.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com