AUBURN – Councilors stepped lightly across the newly sealed gymnasium floor, careful not to leave a smudge.

Principal Vickie Gaylord assured them the floor was safe for walking as long as they stayed to the right. It was mostly dry, and she wanted them to see the gymnasium – which is as big as Auburn Middle School’s gym.

But she didn’t want to take a chance that anything would ruin the floor’s shine before Thursday’s open house.

“We’re mostly ready,” Gaylord said. “When people come in Thursday, they’ll get most of the sense of the place. They’ll see we’re still moving boxes in. It’s a work in progress. But by next week, we’ll be ready.”

Gaylord and the Auburn School Department will be on hand to show off the school between 6 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Classes are scheduled to begin on Aug. 30.

Monday’s tour was meant for city councilors and staff. It included most of the highlights – the big gym, brightly lit classrooms, large cafeteria and wide lockers.

The new school will have about 330 students from grades kindergarten through six on two upper floors. The building’s basement will be used for art classes, a student resource room and storage.

The school includes the latest technology, with interactive “smart boards” at the front of seven rooms. The boards act like a computerized black board, allowing students to interact with information that appears on the screen with special pens.

“We have two other portable smart boards,” Gaylord said. “So, a smart board is never far away if a teacher wants to use it.”

The entire school has Wi-Fi computer access, room lights are automatic and computerized and the lower grades all have a puppet play area topped by a television screen.

In all, the school cost $10.4 million to build. Auburn also received a $120,000 grant from the Maine Public Utilities Commission to make the building energy efficient and an $86,000 homeland security grant to install a gas generator. The school will be a neighborhood shelter in case of severe weather or emergencies.

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