Marshall County Schools officials are beginning to navigate the timeline for removing the modular temporary classroom facility on the Sand Hill Elementary School property so that Sand Hill students can begin the next school year on time in their new building.

Though the deadline for switching from the modular to the new building is still many months away, Superintendent Shelby Haines said at the last Marshall County Board of Education meeting they wanted “plenty of time” to ensure the transition process would go smoothly.

During the meeting, Facilities Director Michael Price said the building’s finishes were being completed. He noted the school was “starting to really look like something” and commended the construction crew for their work on the project.

The new school building’s deadline for completion is mid-August 2025. The project schedule includes removing the modular from the site at the end of the current school year, as the new school’s septic sewage plant and playground will be located where the modular sits.

Price noted that the project’s “main challenge” would be opening the school on time next year while removing the modular from the property. He said the modular would need to be removed after state testing was completed in May to allow time for the school’s sewage treatment plant to be installed and approved by the health department.

Haines joked the “great debate” of the school board office this year has been deciding when the modular can be removed next year.

“Price has said, ‘Come on, let’s move it in mid-April,’ but I’ve told him, ‘You’re not having that,'” Haines said. “You cannot touch my kids until after testing.”

Price said he and Haines had discussed their “plan A and B” to remove the modular.

“If things don’t go well towards the beginning of the next school year, we may have to delay the situation,” Price said. “If we get kids in there [the new school building] for a week or two, and a delay occurs, we know what we’ll do if that happens.”

The modular consists of eight separate trailers that must be removed from the property. It needs to be removed approximately two-and-a-half to three months before the first day of the next school year so that the project’s contractor, Waller Corporation, has adequate time to build the sewage plant infrastructure.

The sewage plant must be completed before school begins, as the facility is required for the building to operate.

“I think it’s going to be harder to get the modular out of there than it was to get it up because we have to get all the furnishings inside of it unloaded,” Price noted.

Price said at a previous BOe meeting held at Sand Hill Elementary School, it was determined that “multiple classrooms” would be completed in the new school building by May. This would allow items from the modular to be moved into completed classrooms in the new school building.

Price added that they also explored a “couple of locations” for moving the modular. He said John Marshall High School has been spotted as a location.

Price said he would keep BOE members informed regarding developments of where the modular will go.

Price said the project had “a lot of challenges,” noting that it would be a “very interesting spring and summer” at Sand Hill. He added that he did not want to wait “until the last minute” to discuss the modular removal with Superintendent Shelby Haines and believed they were “on top” of the project’s timeline.

Haines added that they had some “pretty good options” for Sand Hill students’ last few weeks of the school year. Haines said she, Price and Assistant Superintendent Karen Klamut had met with members of the Sand Hill community on Monday, Nov. 25, to collect their feedback on the situation.

“I think we have some nice options and support from the community,” Haines said. “We’re going to set up a couple more meetings with people from up there [Sand Hill] and see what we come up with.”

Haines said they also met with Sand Hill Elementary School leadership to “look at options to close out the last few weeks of school” if they needed to leave the modular to install the new septic system before school ended.

“I think we have a few options we’re going to work on,” Haines said. “We had one meeting already and will meet again in December, so we have plenty of time to get that situated to end the school year.”