Junction City High School classes for the 2021-2022 school year will begin Aug. 25th, two weeks later than originally planned. Teachers will report to school on Aug. 12th instead of August 4th and students will begin on the 25th.
The new schedule for JCHS was announced and approved by the USD 475 Board of Education Thursday evening.
Dr. Reginald Eggleston, Superintendent of Schools, noted that the change in the schedule is due to the construction on the new school and the pace of that work. "We will add 15 minutes to the day in order to be sure that we cover all of the minutes that we need for seniors as well for all of the students at the high school."
The last day of the school year will be May 17th.
Access to the new high school could be challenging for awhile
David Wild, USD 475 Chief Operations Officer, also confirmed for the school board that there will be only one way to access the new high school when the new year begins, and that will be via Rucker Road. It connects with north end of the new Blue Jay Way that is slated to run along the east side of the school. That could make it difficult to access and depart the property at times due to congestion.
Rucker Road is also a gravel road while the southern 200 feet of Blue Jay Way connecting to a planned K-18 roundabout on the southeast corner of the property has not yet been paved. There will eventually be a roundabout built on K-18 but that work has not yet even begun so there will be no access to JCHS from the southeast side of the school site.
On the west side of the new school, the bid letting for the Munson Road improvement is scheduled July 19th. Wild estimated it would be Thanksgiving before that work is done. Traffic will not be able to access the school from that side of the facility until that work is completed.