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BLAIRSBURG - It was a long time coming.

But with the walls and roof up, the interior construction work has begun at the new Northeast Hamilton Elementary School in Blairsburg.

The new building will include classrooms for students in preschool through fifth grade. The building, which is located on the NEH campus, will also include a library/media center and an adjoining computer lab.

A conference room, resource center, nurse's office and Title I classroom are also included in the new site.

A common entrance and hallway will connect the new construction with the 1918 building. A secretary/reception area is also included in the hallway area. On the other side of the common wall connecting the two buildings, the administration offices have been remodeled to accommodate an office for the school board secretary and a teacher/staff work area and copy room.

While construction workers installed electrical lines and plumbing recently, Superintendent Andrew Woiwood described some of the features for the new classrooms on a walk-through of the site.

In each of the first- through fifth-grade classrooms, two computer connections, a sink and drinking fountain bubbler will be available for the students. A feature in each classroom will be a "Teaching Wall" with a marker board and a bulletin board, said Woiwood. The opposing wall will bee a tack wall where students can display artwork or project items. Each room includes a large window and will have large storage cabinets.

Student lockers will be located in the hallway, said Woiwood. These lockers will be attached to the walls with space underneath for easy cleaning and additional storage for items such as boots, he said.

Each room leads out to the common hallway where the restroom facilities are located.

Classrooms for prekindergarten and kindergarten students are slightly larger than the other rooms, explained Woiwood. Restrooms are located in a common interior hallway between the two classrooms which are separate from the rest of the student population. Both classrooms have a secure door which will lead directly out to the chainlink-fenced playground area, said Woiwood.

This new addition to the school is a long time in the making, according to Woiwood. The initial school improvement committee organized in 2005 when the state of Iowa established the Silo Funds project. The project was designed to help communities identify and target ways to best improve their districts.

With funding from the Silo Funds, the School Improvement Advisory Committee sponsored a bond issue in 2007. When that bond issue failed, the committee continued to meet twice a month and redefined the district's needs, said Woiwood.

The committee formulated a plan, which highlighted the benefits of a new facility and the drawbacks to the present one, said Woiwood. The biggest drawback to the present facility was that it was too small for the current student population. Total school enrollment for the 2009-2010 academic year is 254 students: 84 in high school; 64 in middle school; 105 in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The committee sought input from members of the district, school staff and students as well as an architectural firm, said Woiwood. The committee also visited other schools to research what features worked or could be improved upon in a new facility.

"This is a source of pride for our district," said Woiwood.

Voters approved a $3.365 million bond issue in 2008 and construction began soon after the issue passed. The project architect is DLR Group, Inc. of Des Moines and the construction firm is Peterson Construction of Webster City.

In addition to designing class space with best practices in mind, the school grounds are also getting revamped, said Woiwood.

Staff and most of the student parking lots have been paved, he said. To the north of the new building, bus and parent pickup lanes have been created with student safety in mind.

Preliminary site preparation included tackling seen and unseen obstacles, said Woiwood.

Four individual 1,000-gallon propane tanks were located on the south side of the property and provided fuel to heat the facility. In the revised plan, those tanks were removed and one 18,000-gallon tank was installed, said Woiwood. Besides cleaning up the site, the one tank allows the district to purchase a tank load of propane for 93 cents per gallon, compared to the $1.90 it was previously spending.

"That is quite a cost savings to the district," said Woiwood.

It was the hidden obstacles that caused unseen delays on the project, said Woiwood.

Unknown to the district, residential housing existed in the area of the original 1918 building. Builders encountered several cisterns which had to be removed before construction could proceed. A septic system was also uncovered at the site. Workers needed to fill and pack the area with dirt in order to stabilize the ground before construction could proceed.

A new furnace will serve all three building sites - the new elementary, the original 1918 building and the 1967 addition. A new transformer provides electrical updates which will also service the entire school, said Woiwood.

Originally slated to open in April, delays have pushed back the starting date for occupancy in the new school, said Woiwood. He noted that even after the construction is completed, the actual move from one building to another will take time to accomplish.

"April 30 was our target date, but that is not the case," said Woiwood. "We are planning the next school year in the new building."