Construction soon will begin on the new, almost $40 million Herscher Intermediate School, which is slated to open in fall 2027.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Thursday for the Herscher School District 2 project to replace its aging school facility.

The new school will be built on the vacant property directly behind the current intermediate school and Herscher High School.

The property sits at the intersection of North Elm Street and West Third Street in Herscher.

The building will contain the district’s second through fourth graders. Enrollment for the intermediate school is about 360 students this year.

The single-story building will contain three pods of six classrooms divided by grade level for a total of 18 classrooms, plus a competition-sized gymnasium, an outdoor classroom and other spaces. The building will be about 57,000 square feet.

The total project cost is about $37.9 million.

Superintendent Rich Decman said that construction would begin as early as next week.

Johnson-Downs Construction, Bright Architecture and BLDD Architects are partnering with the district on the project.

“It’s finally here,” Decman said. “For the next 18 months, we’ll just watch the progress occur outside our windows here, and hopefully all goes well.”

Construction is expected to be completed in May or June 2027, with demolition of the old intermediate school to take place shortly thereafter.

It might take until November or December 2027 for the project to be fully done, depending on how long demolition takes, but the new building should be up and ready for kids to attend by fall 2027, Decman said.

Construction will affect the district’s calendar for a couple of years, he noted.

At the upcoming District 2 board meeting on Tuesday, the board will vote on implementing a modified calendar for the district.

In the 2026-27 school year, students would start the year earlier than usual, around Aug. 10, and end the year earlier than usual as well.

For the 2027-28 academic year, students wouldn’t return until after Labor Day.

So they would have one year with a longer summer break to accommodate the transition into the new building, followed by a year with a shorter summer break.

Darlene Crane, 8, who will be a fourth grader in the new building when it opens, participated in the groundbreaking ceremony with a few other students.

Darlene, a current second grader and cheerleader, said she was excited to have all new spaces, from new classrooms and a gym to the cafeteria and playground.

Ashley Hansen, a Herscher parent, brought her children Ledger and Lennon to the groundbreaking ceremony. They are currently in second and first grades and soon will be attending the new school.

“We love the school district,” Hansen said. “We’re excited to see it grow.”

An advisory committee of community members, teachers and administrators, which was formed to provide input during the planning process, met in the Herscher Intermediate School library after the groundbreaking to discuss interior design details of the new building.

The committee has been meeting periodically for about a year.

Norma Applegate, who attended Thursday’s meeting, is a retired 34-year Herscher teacher and former Herscher school board member.

“I’m 77; I started third grade here, so this is from that many years ago,” Applegate said. “It’s an old building. It’s held up, but it’s also had so many different additions done to it. There’s a lot of ups and downs. ... It was time [for an upgrade].”

In previous meetings, the committee gave feedback on where the new building should be situated within the Herscher campus and other planning details.

In August 2024, the Herscher school board voted to reverse its original decision regarding addressing the aging school facility. Initially, the board had voted to build an addition to Limestone Middle School, but members reconsidered after being met with a great deal of community opposition.

“[The board] didn’t just take it at what they first planned,” Applegate said. “The community members became very active in the planning.”