The bathrooms are ready — which is always important. So is the cafeteria. And while the front entrance and administrative offices are not quite there yet, teachers will move into their classrooms today in preparation for starting the new school year.

Aspen Community Magnet School — the new K-8 on the site of the old Alameda Middle School off Agua Fría Street — will officially open Tuesday, according to public schools Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez.

"Everything is in order for school to happen at Aspen," Gutierrez said Monday.

The Alameda campus, which opened in 1980, received an intensive, summer-long structural makeover as the district transformed it into a K-8 to house students from the recently closed Alvord, Kaune and Larragoite elementary schools. It will start as a K-6 with about 450 students and add a seventh grade in 2011-2012 and eighth grade in 2012-2013.

But unforeseen construction problems and several acts of vandalism led school district officials to delay opening Aspen by two weeks.

Construction will continue — primarily after school and in "isolation from students" — on the school's front entrance, according to construction liaison Kristy Janda Wagner.

"It's really coming along," she said Monday. "The work that does remain ... will not disrupt instruction."

While the front entrance will remain closed until that job is complete, students and parents can use the doors adjacent to that entrance, she said.

Nancy Martinez, who will teach kindergarten at Aspen, said when students do walk through that door on Tuesday, they will make history.

"We're going to be the ones to start that K-8 and all those kids, when they walk through that door, are going to be the ones who can say, 'When that opened, we were the first ones there,'" she said.

Aspen students who may be enjoying two extra weeks of vacation because of the delay will pay for it by going to school an extra 30 minutes every day during the school year.

Aspen kindergartners continue to take class at Kaune Elementary School through Friday. Aspen Principal Danny Peña said Tuesday it's been a "great beginning" there with "no criers, and I usually have criers every year. It's been a great chance to bond with their teachers because they're the only ones over there."

Meanwhile, about 175 Aspen students in grades 1 through 6 are taking part in a recreational camp hosted by the Santa Fe Boys and Girls Club at Larragoite and other sites around town.

Chris Cavazos, assistant director of Boys and Girls Club, said Monday that students in the program have been swimming, learning woodworking skills and enjoying dance and drama classes, all run by local professionals.

As he listened to Aspen students talk about going to their new school, Cavazos said he senses that "they're excited but kind of leery. It's a new middle school with a whole new layout, and they're still enjoying a fun extended summer vacation program."

Feedback from parents on the rec camp has been positive all around, he said.

"Parents love it," Cavazos said. "And they're really happy that we go longer than the school day. We start at 7 and go to 4. Without this program they'd have problems acquiring day care and child care. They keep saying, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us during this difficult time.' "

Aspen hosts an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday — Labor Day — for parents, students and interested community members.

The district still plans to move SER Academy students to Larragoite before the next semester, January 2011. And earlier this month, the school board voted to sell Kaune to the private Desert Academy for $4 million. Both parties must wait until the state Board of Finance approves the sale before the deal becomes final.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.