◆ Administrators expect classrooms to be ready for use when school begins.

Lincoln County School District No. 2 administrators expect the new classroom additions at Afton Elementary and Osmond Elementary Schools to be completed in time for classes to begin on August 21.

Construction on the new additions began last summer with three new classrooms under construction at OES and eight new classrooms at AES.

“We hope construction will be wrapped up and here in another month or so,” said Superintendent Matt Erickson in an interview with Duke Dance on the SVI Radio Network. “We still have a lot to do. We’re a little behind schedule on both of them, and I don’t want to over promise, but we fully anticipate that those classrooms will be ready to go prior to the 23-24 school year.”

Enrollment numbers in the district are not currently as high as projections indicated when the state approved funding for the additions, but eventually, those rooms will be filled.

“The projections that the state did based on their algorithms five or six years ago, showed a much steeper incline in enrollment than has actually bared out,” explained Erickson. “COVID kind of stagnated us on enrollment growth to be honest. Those classrooms will be used for other things for these next couple of years, and then we’ll see what student enrollment does, but we will put them to good use.”

Both schools do have more students than they are able to comfortably accommodate. “Both schools are still over capacity, so those rooms will still be put to good use,” added Erickson. “It’s a big deal anytime you have construction going on, and we will wrap it up here in the next month to six weeks. We are appreciative that the state funded this.”