Crews are working hard to make sure schools are ready for students in less than two weeks.
Construction crews have been working overtime to get The Lake Simcoe Public School in Alcona ready for 425 students.
However, not all of the 60,000 square foot school will be finished when the first bell rings.
The gym still needs a floor, so there's a plan in place to send students somewhere else for phys-ed.
“We've made arrangements with those students for those students to go to the Innisfil recreation centre and because the yard is still underwork, we're going to be using the field adjacent to the school,” says John Dance, superintendent of facility services for the Simcoe County District School Board.
Over at Barrie North Collegiate, there's a lot of work underway to take in 250 students from the now closed Barrie Central Collegiate.
About $10 millions in upgrades include nine new classrooms and a new cafeteria. However, students will also see work crews on the job when they return to class.
“Some of the areas are out of bounds and are being closed off and work will continue.”
The school board says there just isn't enough time to get everything done during the summer months.
“It's not unusual in the board to have renovation projects such as this, where students are in place and construction is going on at the same time. We try to schedule all the work that takes place that has the pounding or the noise making to be outside of school hours.”
The small gym at Barrie North will be used as the cafeteria – the work will be done by June.
Some temporary sacrifices that the board says will pay off with better schools for the future.
