AUBURN – After spending four months in an old Wal-Mart building, Greene Central School staff and students are about to go home.

And they’re eager to move.

“People have already started packing,” said Principal Thomas Martellone.

Greene Central School moved its 400 students and staff into the 115,000-square-foot Wal-Mart building in August while the real Greene Central was being renovated. On the first day of school, staff joked about using the shampoo sinks in the hair-salon-turned-principal’s-office. Teachers greeted students wearing red Wal-Mart vests emblazoned with “How may I help you?”

The novelty has worn off since then.

For the last four months, the school has used 40,000 square feet of the mammoth building, with nurse’s office set up in the former photo lab and the assistant principal’s desk in the “shopping cart corral.” Hot lunches were brought in from a local elementary school. The concrete space behind the building was used for recess.

But noise became the real challenge. Classrooms were enclosed only by high cubicle partitions, allowing kids and teachers to hear everything going on in the hall and in neighboring classes.

“It’s just the day-to-day noise you don’t realize with a ceiling and a door,” Martellone said.

SAD 52, which includes Greene, Leeds and Turner, took possession of the refurbished Greene Central School on Dec. 17. The main part of the school is done, but the new addition will still take a few months to complete. The school system will use the building while that work is being finished.

Workers have already started moving in furniture and equipment that had been stored for the last four months. Greene Central teachers will move their belongings on Wednesday.

There will be no school Wednesday or Jan. 3, when teachers will unpack and set up their classrooms.

The main part of the school went through a major overhaul, with a new roof and windows, new phone and electrical systems, new flooring and a larger cafeteria.

The addition includes four classrooms, a special-education room, art and music spaces and several offices. That addition is expected to be completed by April.

The school was built on Jan. 10, 1955. Officials will mark the move and the building’s birthday on Jan. 10 with a celebration.