SCHOOLS IN DELTA POSTPONE OPENING

DELTA -- The start of school at Delta has been postponed three weeks due in part to flooding.

The first day of classes is scheduled for Sept. 7 instead of Aug. 19.

"We've got lots of water in parts of our district," Delta School District Superintendent Larry Beshears said.

The communities of Allenville and Dutchtown, both virtually cut off by the flooding Mississippi, are part of the district.

But Beshears said the opening of school would have had to be delayed anyway to allow for completion of improvements being made to the elementary building.

Beshears said flooded roads have made it impossible even to establish alternative bus routes.

"We've got the problem of Allenville, which is completely isolated, and then Dutchtown," he said. "We would have to drive way up north on back roads to get there.

"We don't know how long it will take for the water to go down. If it takes as long for the water to go down as it did to go up, we are talking about a long time," Beshears said.

Even when the water goes down, he continued, no one knows how long it will be before buses can travel on the roads that have been under water.

But he said school could not have opened on schedule anyway.

Contractors are installing a new heating and air conditioning system, and new insulation, and are repairing the roof at the elementary building.

"We've got windows torn out of classrooms. They are running electrical wiring," he said.

"They have been working about a week. They are making good progress, but we can't have school like this.

"We want to allow as much time for them to get the work done as necessary," Beshears said. "We just hope this allows enough time to get the water down."

Beshears said information about when and where students will re-enroll will be published when a new schedule is finalized.

In April, voters approved $1.05 million in school bonds that are paying for the new heating and cooling units and roof at the elementary school.

Also part of the package is a 19,900-square-foot addition to the Lowell Jones Building behind the old high school. The addition includes a cafeteria, multipurpose room, science class and lab, home economics, business, special education, library, health service office, counseling office, and administrative office.