School is just one week away, as classes begin on Tuesday, August 21 at West Delaware.

The new construction that started, literally as the students were leaving the building at the end of the last school year is continuing to progress.

There were many things to do during this Phase 1 of the building project.

The most noticeable, at least from the outside, is the Performing Arts Auditorium. Although there is still much to do on the auditorium before it is usable, it’s overall construction is coming along rather nicely.

The band pit section is taking shape as well as the main seating area. One can stand in the not yet completed room and just imagine what it is going to look like when done.

When completed the auditorium will be as good as any high school auditorium in this half of the state.

As one school board member put it, “this will be the equivalent of a small college auditorium and a facility that the entire community should be very proud of.”

The lockerroom expansion project with $50,000 plus of funding from the West Delaware Booster Club is also taking shape.

The expanded facilities will allow for athletes to actually take showers under shower heads that work. There will be ample room to change clothes and lockers for securing personal items.

New and expanded office facilities for the physical education staff will also be a plus for those teaching and administering in that area.

Of course the students at West Delaware will be excited about all the changes that have taken place while they were on summer vacation. New areas for classes and a much nicer dining facility.

The new kitchen and commons area will be a 10 fold improvement over where students ate in the past. To say nothing for where the cooks had to prepare the meals.

The new kitchen area is spacious and has its own walk-in coolers and freezers as well as a walk in storage area for dry goods.

The new serving line will allow for the more efficient movement of students through the line and into the commons area where they will eat.

The new kitchen and dining area are roughly two and a half times larger than the old areas.

That new space will be put to very good use with it being able to host the various athletic banquets that take place at the conclusion of each sporting season.

As well there are some possibilities of using the commons area for parent/teacher conferences and possibly even some public forums.

Work on 16 new classrooms is taking place, and in all probability will not be done for the start of school.

There will be some moving around and adjusting as new areas are completed and old areas are updated.

The “bore field” which is the location for nearly 90 wells (north across Prospect Street from the high school) has been returned to a usable piece of ground.

One could hardly tell that where the marching band may practice, or the freshman football team may run drills was just a few short months ago a huge quagmire.

All in all the project is moving along at a good pace. It is the hope and desire of all involved that whatever adjustments have to be made until the project is completed will be minor and tolerable.

In recent months the West Delaware school board has been working on Phase II of the building plan.

This phase will have to do with improvements to Lambert Elementary, re-modeling the kindergarten building into the new Central Office building and the addition of a new ground level high school gymnasium.

This was just one of the items discussed at last night’s (Monday night) school board meeting.

We will have a full story on that meeting in the next issue of the Press.