PILOT MOUNTAIN — Teachers, parents, students and administrators have been anxiously awaiting word on Pilot Mountain Elementary School all summer.

The work necessary to convert the middle school into an elementary school could not begin in earnest until students left the building for the summer in mid-June. Since that time, Principal Angela Carson and 21st Century Executive Carla Coble have made daily trips past the school to see how it was progressing. They, along with the board of education and central office staff, have met regularly with the contractors and architects to monitor the situation.

Finally, on Tuesday, they received word that they had a temporary certificate of occupancy. Teachers arrived for the first time on Wednesday and Carson expects the school to be ready for students on Aug. 25. She is unsure if the entire building will be ready, but the classrooms will be available for students, which keeps the school system from having to come up with an alternate plan for the first days of school.

Teachers spent all day Tuesday in meetings to take part in staff development and professional learning community meetings so they had not yet gotten into their classrooms to set up. However, they were able to tour the school with Carson and see where their rooms will be.

“To see them when I was giving them the tour, I would say this is your room and they would run past everyone else into the room and do laps around while giggling,” said Carson. “Seeing adults do that is kind of interesting. It just goes to show you the kind of heart these people have for teaching and for the students.”

Crews are still at the building all day trying to get as much finished as possible. Carson said the building is coming along nicely. The fourth- and fifth-grade rooms will most likely be ready first as little work was done in those rooms.

While staff members are there, the crews work on the roof, the connector and exterior issues. Then, when the teachers leave around 3 p.m., they start working in the hallways and classrooms again.

“They give us plenty of room to work,” said Carson of the construction crews and teachers being on campus at the same time.

Plans for open house, which is scheduled for Monday, are still up in the air.

“It’s going to be good, I think, that first day,” said Carson. “All the work you’ve done over the summer was worth it when you see how excited they are.”

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.