"We should be finished the middle of July," said Curt Fischer, Heartland Lutheran High School executive director.

He said the project could conceivably go into early or mid-August before it is finished, but that should not be a problem.

The school board has not set a date for the start of the 2006-07 school year, Fischer said, but there will be no reason for delay because students and teachers can use existing classrooms until construction work is finished.

At one time, Heartland Lutheran officials hoped the project might be done by May. However, Fischer said work did not begin soon enough to realize that dream.

"We started moving dirt in September, pouring concrete in October and doing steel work in December," Fischer said.

However, the warm weather has been conducive for work on the building, which is still not enclosed, he said. "We lost some days because of the blizzard in December and because of the high winds."

Fischer noted that crews could not do any work on the roof when the winds got too strong earlier this month.

Randi Pennell, who teaches both vocal and instrumental music at Heartland Lutheran, said the current music room is also used as a media center/library, for chapel and as the school cafeteria.

As a result, Pennell said, tables have to be taken down or put up depending on whether the room is being used for music, as a media center or for lunch.

She said instruments and hand chimes remain in the room all day but can be an "eyesore" in a room that's supposed to be used as a media center/library.

Pennell said she is definitely looking forward to next year, when she will have her own music room.

"It will be wonderful to have a great place to learn and practice music," Pennell said. She noted that students will have more space to learn "all kinds of music," including choir, band and hand chimes.

"It will be a place to listen to music, record music and practice music," Pennell said.

She said classrooms will be around the perimeter of the gym. That will make it easy for students to move from the music room for public performances of concerts.

Sophomore Jesse Bartels, who plays football and basketball and is also is on the track team, said he is looking forward to having the building project completed next year "so I don't have to drive to practice."

Because Heartland Lutheran has no gym, Bartels said, the boys basketball team practices at Shoemaker Elementary one week and at Worms the next week. Zion Lutheran Church and School at Worms are among the congregations that sponsor Heartland Lutheran.

When the team practices at Shoemaker, Bartels said, he can get home by 6:30 p.m. or sometimes even by 6:15. When the practice is at Worms, he usually doesn't get home until 8 p.m.

Bartels noted that home games are played at Worms. But he said having biweekly practices at the Worms gym doesn't create a true home court advantage, especially when it comes to some opponents.

"Palmer is closer to Worms than we are," Bartels said.

Heartland Lutheran will also have a football field for practice and games, so Bartels is also looking forward to having a home field advantage.

If Bartels is happy about the coming building project, biology/P.E. teacher Robin Keilig is triply happy. She is also the girls basketball coach.

Keilig said that her current biology classroom is not a specialty room that includes lab space. That will change with the completion of the building project for next school year.

"I will be able to do some more hands-on lab type of things," Keilig said. "I can set up some more long-term experiments."

The building addition will also make a big difference when it comes to teaching physical education, she said. Right now, P.E. is offered during "the first and fourth quarter, when we have a little bit more dependable weather. But it's still hit and miss because it's Nebraska.

"It will be nice to not have the weather adjust my lesson plans daily," Keilig said.

Next year, it will be possible to run health and P.E. classes on alternating days for an entire school year, which will provide one semester of health and one of P.E., she said.

That schedule is better than having all health during the second and third quarters, with no opportunity for physical education, Keilig said. "For kids who aren't in sports, that means they can spend most of the winter with no physical activity."

Keilig notes that she lives in Ravenna, which means she often gets home at 8 p.m. after basketball practice.

"It gets wearing after a while," she said.

Keilig noted that some players are from Hastings, which means going to Worms for basketball practice is going in the wrong direction from home.

She said the practices at Shoemaker and Worms mean always moving equipment. They also mean players must always bag their practice gear for traveling between school and court.

"It will be nice to have locker rooms," she said.

Another nice thing about having a gym at Heartland Lutheran is that it will give the players an opportunity to be "gym rats," who go to the gym to shoot baskets whenever they might have free time and the gym is also free, Keilig said.