By Alex Bridges -- Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER — Mere walls do not make a school — but they do help.

With walls and other necessary parts of Frederick County's 12th elementary school finished or nearly complete, officials have high hopes of the facility opening on time for classes to begin in August 2009.

The $23 million school is being built off Channing Drive in the Red Bud District with capacity for 750 pupils and a gymnasium to seat 400 people.

Steve Kapocsi, coordinator of construction and facilities use, updated the county School Board on the project Tuesday night, noting that footers were 99 percent complete, as were the underslab electrical conduits and plumbing. Site work continues around the building footprint, and the concrete slab is about 65 percent complete.

Workers have finished building the gymnasium walls, Kapocsi said. The contractor is moving forward to put a roof on the gymnasium, he added. Crews continue to make progress on other parts of the facility, he reported.

"So work does continue," Kapocsi told the board. "Weather permitting, Mother Nature, probably by sometime at the end of next week, they should be close to closing in on the slab pour."

"We've been fortunate weatherwise, even though, when Mother Nature did hit us, it hit us at the right time and didn't hurt us at all, so things are progressing and moving very well," Kapocsi said.

Also, the board unanimously approved a resolution authorizing an application to the Virginia Public Schools Authority for the sale of bonds and requesting the Board of Supervisors issue bonds in the amount of $7.3 million.

These funds are needed to pay for construction costs related to the building of the 12th elementary school until the next bond sale in spring 2009.

In other school building matters, the board approved the construction of an outdoor classroom/shelter behind Orchard View Elementary School.

The school's Parent Teacher Organization plans to pay for the project by raising the $13,850 needed to build the 20-by 40-foot pavilion, officials said.

Renovations to Apple Pie Ridge Elementary School also are on schedule, Kapocsi told the board.

* Contact Alex Bridges at abridges@nvdaily.com