Portables at South Junior High School are ready to be removed. The Lawrence school district says it has notified the buyer of the temporary buildings to pick them up by Friday or they will be demolished along with the old school building.

Daylight fills a nearly completed hallway in South Junior High School. The Lawrence school district's contractor is currently working on the new 114,000-square-foot building. The district plans to have most of the facility ready for a teacher work day on Aug. 14 and the next day when seventh-graders start school.

Construction crews continue to race against time to try to get the new South Junior High School ready for students and teachers in mid-August.

With the new building now enclosed, school district administrators have said all but two science classrooms on the south side will be finished in time for a teacher work day Aug. 14. Seventh-graders attend the next day.

“Those classrooms will not be too far behind the start of school in getting done,” said Tom Bracciano, division director of operations and facility planning for Lawrence public schools. “If you go in there and look, it really doesn’t take too long once we get going to get those finished out.”

The new 114,000-square-foot building is being constructed in five sections and has four more classrooms than the old South, known for its round shape, and all the portable classrooms used recently at 2734 La. The cost of the project – building the new school and tearing down the old – is $24 million.

Bracciano said the extra space will help temporarily handle the load for the two science classrooms that will not be finished during the first month of school. Students will not have to be sent somewhere else for classes this fall, he said.

School and district administrators have planned on the new main gymnasium and locker rooms not being ready. Physical education classes will be outside. Volleyball practice will be at another school.

The area around South and Broken Arrow School still will look much like a construction site for several weeks. Crews are working on paving a new drive and sidewalk to Broken Arrow, and temporary parking lot work will begin soon. The district has given the buyer of the portable classrooms until Friday to haul them away, Bracciano said.

And demolition will start Aug. 6 on the old building, which opened in 1969. It will become a parking lot. Crews have been removing asbestos, and they expect the demolition to take a couple weeks. But Bracciano said a construction fence around the old building is a big part of the security plan.

Superintendent Randy Weseman also said this week the bond-funded project was fast-tracked, which allowed contractors to firm up prices and save the district money. He also said the savings were the main reason board members are considering about a 0.25-mill decrease for the 2007-2008 budget.