by Ben Kleppinger

It could be much longer than initially expected before Lincoln County preschoolers who had their classrooms destroyed in an Aug. 6 fire are back in school.

The eight mobile classrooms needed for Lincoln County’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs likely won’t be installed until Oct. 8, Superintendent Karen Hatter said.

After that, teachers will still have to move in, Head Start coordinator Christine Killen said.

“Our teachers would need at least a week to transport all our materials, if all our materials are in,” she said. “Then they would need at least a week to put those materials in place.”

Because of how the school district’s fall break hits during the middle of the possible setup time, Killen said the preschoolers probably couldn’t start class until Oct. 20.

School officials were originally aiming to have the mobile classrooms installed in late August and begin school for the preschoolers on Sept. 8.

Hatter said the delay is due in part to acquiring and installing acceptable mobile units, which have to be up to code and meet specific standards for preschool classrooms.

The units are required to have electric and plumbing hooked up, age-appropriate bathroom facilities and a water source such as a water fountain. There even have to be hookups available for washers and dryers, Killen explained.

Along with the date change, officials have also changed the planned location for the classrooms. School board members approved a plan Thursday to locate the classrooms and a mobile office unit behind the board of education building, in an old football field.

Board members voted 4-0 on a pair of approvals for the plan. Board member Denny Hogue abstained on both votes.

The plan first requires demolition of what remains of the board annex building, which caught fire Aug. 6 and burned to the ground, leaving the preschoolers without classrooms and many other school-district services without office space.

The demolished building will be cleared away and the ground leveled with at least a semi-permanent grading, school officials said. A road would then be built that would loop around the back of the half of the building that escaped destruction in the blaze, in order to provide full access to the mobile classrooms’ location.

The mobile classroom project will cost a total of $272,950, according to a project application form from the school district’s architecture and engineering firm, Sherman Carter Barnhart (SCB).

That cost would be covered by the school district’s insurance company, Hatter said. The cost of demolition and grading of the land will also be covered by insurance, but isn’t included in the price quote for mobile classrooms, she explained.

The mobile classrooms can potentially be used for up to two years under KDE regulations, according to SCB spokesman Eric Loy.

That gives the district time to rebuild or relocate permanently, Hatter said.

School board member Denny Hogue mentioned two possible locations for a new building at Thursday’s meeting — property owned by the school district behind Stanford Elementary School and the old Food Lion building in Wilderness Estates off of U.S. 150.

Hatter said the district isn’t ready yet to decide about permanent locations because officials are still in the phase of getting everything operational again.