FARMINGTON — Maneuvering around construction to get to the classrooms at Mt. Blue High School and figuring out the traffic pattern at the new W.G. Mallett School are expected to be the two biggest challenges facing students and parents when school starts Tuesday.

But administrators said that after months of planning and countless hours of preparing for opening day, they believe the transition can be made without too many headaches.

The extra week of summer vacation that students enjoyed in RSU 9 gave contractors at both major construction projects more time to tackle critical issues before the doors opened.

School had been scheduled to open Aug. 31, but the district’s Board of Directors authorized Superintendent Michael Cormier to delay opening for one week since work at the high school was behind schedule.

At Mt. Blue/Foster Career and Technical Education Center the three-year, $64 million school still has another year to go before the expansion and renovation is complete.

At Mallett, the new school is nearly done, and contractors will continue to work on the final “punch list” after school hours. Outside, crews are still removing demolition debris from the razed old school that in 2012 will be the site of a new playground.

“We are in much better shape than we were a week ago. The extra week didn’t just help with the construction; it allowed staff to get in to set up their classrooms, and furniture was put together at the high school and installed,” Cormier said Friday.

“I want to assure parents we are prepared for students,” he said.

Mt. Blue High School/Foster Career and Technical Education Center

Freshmen start Tuesday and Wednesday is starting day for grades 10 to 12 and at Foster Tech. Drivers should be aware that cars now enter and exit from the same access road off Seamon Road, and traffic monitors will be on-site to direct motorists where to drop off students and where to park.

The school now consists of three islands. There is the main three-story classroom building, a new classroom wing and 21 modular classrooms.

Fenced-in exterior walkways will allow students to safely navigate between the units.

“Students will have to learn where things are because everything is different,” Cormier said.

Glenn Kapiloff, the director at Foster Tech, said some programs will be at the new school, but classes continue to be held for others at the temporary annex on High Street. Several of those will move back to the main campus in October.

“I know parents are concerned about the work going on here, but we ask people to be patient and flexible,” Kapiloff said. “There has been a lot of discussion about student safety, and that is our priority. We’ve worked out the safest ways to bring students around campus and the shortest distances that they will have to walk.”

The education opportunities at the new learning campus will be amazing, and incoming students will get to see it all unfold, according to Kapiloff. One example is the state-of-the-art composite manufacturing classroom, where students learn to work with materials such as fiberglass and carbon fiber. Composites are the products of an engineering process combining two or more substances to make a single material.

“It will be the first ever in Maine and maybe one of the first in the country,” Kapiloff. “It will be cutting edge.”

W.G. Mallett School

Principal Tracy Williams said the traffic pattern at the new school could be challenging to figure out for parents. The school’s new one-way entrance is on Middle Street, and the exit is on Quebec Street. There are only five slots for 10-minute parking for parents to drop children off, and those slots will be at a premium, according to Williams.

“If parents want to walk their children into the building, we are asking them to park off premises and walk their children in,” Williams said.

Site maps and letters about the traffic flow and parking have been sent home, but Williams anticipates there will still be people who will drive in, look for a parking space, and will have to exit to find a parking space on the street.

When students arrive at the front door, kindergarten students will be brought into the cafeteria; second- and third-graders will gather in the gym. From there, staff and volunteers will bring students to their classrooms.

“The school is such an impressive place. It is absolutely amazing, and we are just thrilled and looking forward to seeing what the kids think,” Williams said.