The Charter School for Applied Technologies is working through the many preparations needed before classes start at the former site of Holy Angels Academy.
Superintendent Efrain Martinez says he's bringing in seven school buses to see if they can turn around in the entrance on Shoshone Street. If they can't, he says there will be a rush to build a wider bus turnaround.
It's only one part of the $1.5 million rush conversion of the complex to a sixth-seventh-eighth grade middle school for Applied Technologies.
When classes start August 25, the school will house 525 students with another 1400 students in two buildings near Kenmore and Vulcan where the charter has operated for years.
Martinez says the building had to be updated to meet current building and accessibility codes.
"We added quite a bit of technology to every single classroom and that required a great deal of wiring. The most important update of the codes was a bigger elevator that unlike the elevator they had there...goes all the way to the third floor," Martinez said.
Some classrooms are being built in what had been office space. Taking over the building opens up athletic facilities Applied Technologies doesn't have now as it expands sports teams.
