LAUREL - Meridian High School students and teachers will be in new classrooms when they return from spring break, as construction on the school's new education building is ahead of schedule.
The education building, which will be home to the school's main classrooms, had been scheduled for completion by summer but was already 95 percent done by mid-January, Superintendent Tom Churchill said.
Last summer's streak of dry weather helped Tiger Construction crews make headway on the job, he said. Crews should be done by March, with teachers moving into their new spaces over spring break in the first week of April.
"It's pretty exciting to move into a new building," he said. "Teachers love it and kids love it."
After the move, the old main building will be prepped for demolition, which probably will take place over summer break. Demolition on the school's gym is expected to start in March after the end of basketball season. The new gym will be built in the same footprint and will open in fall 2013 before the next basketball season.
"It'll be a whole new campus by next November," Churchill said.
Tiger Construction also is working on the district's new elementary school, which is being built behind the existing Irene Reither Primary School. The school will serve students who now attend the primary school and Ten Mile Elementary, and it's scheduled to open by December 2013. Churchill hopes that teachers will be able to move in during Christmas break.
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