Senior students at Saltus Grammar School will be using temporary classrooms in September as the school begins the first phase of its master refurbishment plan.

Principal Nigel Kermode told that the Reiss Center will be demolished to accommodate a new three level building with a piazza style roof top. The building will occupy the space between the gymnasium and the pool.

Thirteen classrooms in total, senior graduate and teaching classrooms and a changing area and aerobics room are some of the features of the multi-million dollar project. The roof top will include a garden area and will be levelled off with the existing parking lot outside the Reiss Centre.

Mr. Kermode said smaller learning classrooms will provide additional counselling and group learning facilities for students.

Ground breaking for the project will begin in July 2004 and is expected to be completed in 2006.

A student at Saltus, who did not want to be named, said students had not been offered a discount in tuition fees although they will have to take classes that count as college credits in temporary classrooms resembling trailers, or in an older classroom the students describe as ?the dungeon?.

?We understand that it has to be done but we are disappointed since many of us have been at Saltus since the beginning and we don?t get to use these facilities,? he said.

The student added that the Reiss Centre, which is being demolished, will no longer provide a central gathering place for SGY students.

He added they will be approaching the principal to express their concerns. Mr. Kermode said the construction is part of the school?s vision for the future. ?It?s an exciting under-taking and a new vision for development. We are convinced it will transform the school for those joining us in the future,? he said.

The school will be starting a fund-raising campaign in the near future.