ELYRIA — With half of the building sitting directly next to a construction site, Elyria High School students will shoulder a lot more than just tests, quizzes and homework this school year.

Dust, debris and distractions — the three D’s of construction — will all be things teachers and students will have to put up with as the $68 million construction project to build a new high school kicks into full swing. The work is creating some obvious challenges for school officials. Yet Principal Darren Conley said he hopes a plan that has been in the works for months will meet those obstacles head on.

School officials see dismissal as being the biggest challenge. Anyone who has attempted to pick up a student or drive down Sixth Street right after the end-of-the-day bell has sounded in the past knows that dismissal time is chaotic. That’s when 1,400 kids are all released and told to go their separate ways.

Tomorrow, the ocean of students will be flooded through just two doors onto West Avenue and Middle Avenue, likely turning the area into a sea of eager-to-get-home teenagers. That’s where the plan developed in cooperation with the Elyria Police Department will come into play.

No cars will be allowed to stop on Fifth or Seventh streets as police want them clear for traffic. West Avenue will be for those taking the bus, walkers and student drivers. Middle Avenue will be for parents picking up students. The West Avenue parking lot, which has been completely reconstructed, will be open to student drivers.

“To say from 2:40 to about 3:10 p.m. will be congested will be an understatement,” Conley said. “But we have worked out a plan that looks out for everyone — neighbors, too. Now, we have to see if it works.”

Creating a barrier between school space and the construction space will be the priority for the year. That is being done with a 10-foot aluminum fence that surrounds most of the building, limiting access to the surrounding construction area.

Students will return to a building that can only be entered through one set of doors as the main entrance has been temporarily moved to West Avenue. Vic Janowicz Drive, the street formerly known as Sixth Street, is no longer open to foot or car traffic and soon will completely disappear under the footprint of the new school.

Elyria is stepping into new territory with its plan to build a school a stone’s throw from students and classes, Conley said.

“The state is looking to us right now to see if we can get it done,” he said. “New schools are typically built on a vacant plot of land away from students. Many don’t try to do it all on one spot.”

But school officials say work is progressing steadily on the geothermal well field, the West Avenue parking lot and the expansion site a block south of the high school between the former Sixth and Seventh streets.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

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