FARMINGTON —  When classes start at Mt. Blue High School this week, there are a few changes students will need to consider.

Freshmen will start Wednesday and everyone else Thursday.

All RSU students in grades seven to 12 need to plan on a 10-minute earlier start and end to their school day. School begins for these grades at 7:45 a.m. and ends at 1:50 p.m.

Bus pickup and drop-off times will be affected accordingly for the middle and high school students.

The traffic on the Mt. Blue campus has changed over the summer to allow for construction on the front, original portion of the school.

Students and teachers will drive in from Seamon Road and park as they did last year and enter a staff and student entrance west of the parking area.

Parents dropping off students are also asked to drive into the student/teacher parking to a zone designated for student drop-off only, according to a release from the high school.

Buses will drop off students at an entrance on the west side of the school, a drive next to Foster Technology Center and formerly used to exit the school parking lot.

Visitors are also asked to use this area for parking and enter the school through the main entrance.

When the nearly $65 million expansion and renovation project is finished in September 2013, the high school, the Foster Career and Technical Education Center, SAD 9 adult education and Franklin County Community College Network programs will all be on the campus.

This fall, nearly 900 students will attend the high school, which was built in 1969.

There is a new two-story classroom wing. The original three-story classroom wing is under renovation, so 12 portable units will be used for classes this year.

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