Bad news kids, summer’s flying by

 
It’s a simple equation — 44 > 40 — and it’s bad news for New Hampton Community Schools students.
You see, their summer is more than half over.
The halfway point — to be exact — was last Wednesday, and while 40 days may seem like an eternity to some, summer is flying by.
“It’s crazy to think we’re sitting here in mid-July and we’ll have kids back in class in just six weeks,” New Hampton Superintendent Jay Jurrens said. “But you know, when July 4 comes around, that’s usually when I feel like we’re getting close.”
For the past 44 days — excluding weekends, of course — the district’s custodial staff has been working on that “deep cleaning” every school district does, but this summer, they’ve also been preparing for the start of a $19.415 million building project that will include a new middle school, industrial technology and vocational agriculture center and a new competition gym.
Because of that building project, which was approved by district voters in February, the district avoided so-called “big summer projects.”
“We knew we’d have a lot to get ready for so our plan was really to avoid those big projects this year,” Jurrens said. “But it’s been very busy.”
— For more on this story, see the July 14 Tribune