Construction continues at Frontier Elementary School but won’t be finished in time for the first day

JEROME, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — As Jerome continues to grow, the school dsitrict is working to make sure there is enough space for every student to learn.

A few years ago, they passed a bond to build a brand-new elementary school on South Tiger Drive.

The hope was to have that new school complete by the start of this school year, but that isn’t going to be the case.

“They are making progress on our school, we’re not going to move in in the fall but we are going to plan option 1 is to move in Thanksgiving time, option 2 is Christmas time sometime, either before or after the Christmas break,” said Barbara Brown, who is the principal at Frontier Elementary.

Contractors are waiting on one major piece of the puzzle to be able to welcome kids into the school.

“It’s all dependent on the electrical panel and when it comes in, it’s supposed to ship September 8, we’re hoping that it ships that day, if it doesn’t, we’ll change our move in date depending on that,” said Brown.

The rest of the school district’s plan can’t be enacted until Frontier Elementary is complete however, as after construction at Frontier Elementary is complete, they will begin remodeling Jefferson Elementary.

“The plan is, as soon as we get the kids here they’ll start renovating Jefferson Elementary school, and then after that is renovated, hopefully that will be before next fall, we want to move to K-6 schools which will be good, and the our Dual Immersion Program will move to Jefferson Elementary school, and all of the dual immersion kids will be there, and all the other, the other 3 elementary schools will move to K-6 elementary’s to serve the rest of the Jerome students,” said Brown.

Barbara Brown, who is going to be the principal at Frontier says even though the transitions may be tough at first, the end result of the new school model will be beneficial for all the students and families.

“Our theme for this year at the school is rise up, or rise above, just because we want teachers to know that it’s not easy, move halfway through the year, so we’re just encouraging them to rise above it all, and make the best of it,” said Brown.

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