The Superintendent of Beatrice Public Schools says the construction of a new elementary building is on schedule.

Jason Alexander says despite the fact that wet weather in July had created some concerns about the progress of the building, construction crews were able to quickly move forward in August..

“When August hit and things dried up a little bit they made extensive progress on the outside of the building as most people can tell as they drive by. The exterior of the building is about 85 to 90 percent complete. No holdup on materials…no  delays or anything except for that July weather. They are about 85 to 90 percent complete on the building exterior.”

Alexander says paving projects around the new building are near completion. While speaking on KWBE’s Focus On Education program on Tuesday morning, he says the dry weather this fall allowed the work to be done at a fast pace.

“That looping system is 3.5 miles long. It’s design to hold an extensive amount of traffic that will be coming in for pickup and drop off during the school day and that is about 75 percent complete. We are anticipating that will be finished up before we totally get into a situation where the ground is too hard and it freezes up. Everything is pretty much on schedule.”

Alexander says the inside of the building is starting to look like a school building. Drywall and painting has been done on both floors of the new building.

“Level two of the building which is the upstairs…the framing and drywall is about 80 percent complete.  They are flying on the inside as well and it is coming along nicely. Level one…..the lower level…the drywall is approximately 55 percent complete. They started on the upper level and worked their way from west to east and doing the same thing on the lower level. On the far east end which is the preschool they have the drywall up and the first coat of paint on so it looks like a classroom. It looks really good.”

The new elementary building located on east Lincoln street in Beatrice will be home for students pre-school thru fifth grade. The school is scheduled to be open next fall.