The Vauxhall elementary school and Vauxhall junior/senior high school will be ready for school when staffs return today, with students returning on Monday.
Over the past couple of weeks, school start-up planning meetings have been held with the principals, facilities/maintenance staff and contractor to ensure safety for students and staff returning for the 2010-11 school year.
Site safety is the joint responsibility of the school principal and their staff, facilities personnel and the construction manager or site foreman of the general contractor.
Due to the extensive nature of both the elementary school and junior/senior high school projects, including site and road work, the principals and division office staff have been involved in site inspections and planning for safe entry and exit for students, staff and visitors.
The process of clean up and preparation has begun to provide for safe traffic movement and student and staff access to areas of the school that will be occupied at the beginning of the year. During the summer, the contractor and sub-contractors have had unrestricted access to most of the areas within each school.
Now that start-up is just around the corner, the contractors’ access to occupied portions of the school will be restricted once again.
The diagram to the right identifies how students, parents and staff are to gain access to the schools as shown in green. A temporary bus zone, highlighted in red, has been developed whereby busses will access the drop-off and pick-up areas from the south side of the school grounds. 
Elementary school children being dropped-off by parents will access the school from the north side or the property along 7th Avenue North.  Parking will also be available from 7th Avenue North.
Temporarily relocating the bus zone and parking area is necessary, as 7th Street North will be under construction with upgrading of underground utilities. The yellow highlighted areas identify construction zones.
In addition to 7th Street North being under construction, the southwest corner of the property will also be under construction as a result of excavation work required as part improving site drainage.
Parking for staff will be provided in the same area as is currently provided for the junior/senior high, however the space available will be temporarily reduced and will not accommodate the number of vehicles as previously. Students and staff are encouraged to walk to school if living in the Town of Vauxhall or to car pool. Off-site parking is available as usual on streets. 
The principals and their staff will be monitoring the school building, and site access throughout the course of the year and various times will have to make changes to classrooms and access to allow for the work to proceed.
Arrangements will be made for the contractors to work outside of occupied areas and outside school hours at times of peak disruption, or for staff or students to be temporarily relocated to ensure safe learning and working environments.