With less than six months until its scheduled opening, Pineview School is taking shape rapidly as construction crews work daily to finish the 1,200-student K-8 campus in north Crestview, officials told the Okaloosa County School Board during a workshop Monday.

• Assistant Superintendent Grant Meyer said most of the buildings on the campus are dried in, with interior work including flooring, painting and casework underway in some classroom wings. The cafeteria and kitchen are ahead of schedule, and the media center at the front of the building is progressing, he said.

“It is getting real,” Meyer told board members. “because we have less than six months before we need to open.”

Meyer said crews will continue working through weekends and over spring break to stay on schedule, with plans to push through the summer. The first delivery of furniture could arrive as soon as April in one completed classroom wing, with additional deliveries phased through the summer and into the fall.

Site work is also advancing, with stadium lighting installed at the baseball, softball and track facilities. The track will be an eight-lane facility built to specifications that would allow the district to host district, regional and state tournaments, Meyer said.

• “I think that people who are in the track world would appreciate the fact that now we will be able to host those types of events on the north end,” Board Member Tim Bryant said.

The one remaining task is water service. Meyer said the water tank is on site, but issues with the water line have delayed permanent air conditioning and HVAC systems by a few weeks.

“I would say that’s the one piece that we’re still working on,” Meyer said, adding that the district is coordinating with the city of Crestview to resolve the issue.

The school, located on 49 acres west of the new Crestview Bypass, will be the district’s first new school since 2008. It will feature two-story classroom wings, a gymnasium, band and chorus rooms, a media center, a career and technical education wing and a cafeteria designed as an Enhanced Hurricane Protection Area.

The campus will also include enclosed walkways connecting buildings on both the ground and second floors, which Meyer said were recently completed.

Superintendent Marcus Chambers said monthly meetings are underway covering all aspects of preparing to open the school, from construction and curriculum to hiring and extracurricular programs including sports, cheerleading and dance. Principal Dr. Donna Kelley has also been meeting with parents in anticipation of the August opening, Chambers said.

On the staffing front, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Lindsay Maxey said hiring for Pineview will begin around April with a “skeleton set of allocations” to get the school operational. Full allocations will be released later in the summer.

The hiring process is also shaped by the simultaneous closure of Mary Esther Elementary and Longwood Elementary, Maxey said. Employees at those schools will try to be placed first before Pineview hiring moves forward.

• Maxey said she hopes all affected employees will know their placements before summer break.

Pineview is expected to initially enroll approximately 900 to 1,000 students, with roughly 450 in elementary grades and 450 to 500 in middle school grades. The school has a total capacity of 1,200.

The campus mascot is the Bears, with purple and white as the school colors. Elementary students will be known as the Cubs.