As local students prepare once again to hit the books, the Dry Creek school district is getting ready to roll on a slew of taxpayer-financed facilities projects throughout area elementary and middle schools.

Trustees recently approved a timetable for spending funds from Measure E, the $65 million school facilities bond voters in the district narrowly approved in February.

While the big bucks will go toward two major construction undertakings – completing the soon-to-open Creekview Ranch Middle School and an eventual new elementary in Roseville – there’s also slew of planned smaller efforts. The end result? Shadier places to hang out on campus, better ball fields to exercise on and more computers with which to research homework, officials say.

The goodie-bag of more than 50 projects will begin in earnest this year and eventually affect every district school.

Just a few slated to start at existing sites during the 2009 fiscal year, which began July 1, include:

n “Digital classroom” technology: Each school (except Barrett Ranch, which already has the system) will receive anywhere from $137,000 to $250,000 to implement hardware and network improvements to the classroom. Major work starts this fiscal year at Olive Grove Elementary and Silverado Middle School.

The bulk of that money will pay for electronic interactive “smart board” displays and LCD projectors, and curriculum planners are currently drawing up plans for how best to implement the technology.

“Some of our grade levels may only want smart boards in science classrooms,” Super-intendent Mark Geyer said. “What we’re going to do is plan it right, so we don’t just put smart boards in every classrooms and then they don’t get used.”

n Surveillance systems: Schools without systems will be upgraded with state-of-the-art cameras, which officials hope will take a bite out of vandalism. The crimes cost the district thousands each year, especially in the summer months, and officials estimate they could pay for themselves within a few years in saved expenses.

“It’s a preventive, but it’s also a safety and security issue,” said Gordon Medd, assistant superintendent of business services. “With 27 cameras on a middle school and signs that say you’re being watched, it reduces (worrisome) kinds of activities.”

Work has already started this summer at many district sites. Projects are slated to be finished during the 2009-2010 fiscal year at Coyote Ridge, Heritage Oak, Quail Glen, Antelope Meadows and Antelope Crossing Middle School. Cost: roughly $70,000 to $100,000 per elementary school; the larger ACMS is estimated at $190,000.

The district will also be reimbursed up to half of the cost for surveillance cameras through the Roseville Police Department and a Department of Justice COPS grant.

n Campus improvements: Barrett Ranch and Coyote Ridge will see steel shade structures go up this year, at a cost of $68,000 each. Quail Glen and Dry Creek will each get $35,000 worth of new computer lab equipment.

Down the line, students can also expect a complete overhaul of the ball fields at Silverado and Antelope Crossing middle schools, in projects that will start in the 2010 fiscal year, solving a problem that has long frustrated users.

On the Silverado ball field, “Drainage is so bad that half the year they can only use half the field,” Medd said. “It’s just not as usable as it should be.”

Also scheduled to start this year is a major upgrade of Dry Creek School, the district’s original site. About $3.3 million has been budgeted for improved ingress and egress at the school, which is located on an intersection that quickly becomes overwhelmed during peak periods. About $3.6 million has been budgeted for a long-awaited multipurpose room, bringing the school in line with other facilities district-wide, but a construction start date has not been scheduled.approved in February.

While the big bucks will go toward two major construction undertakings – completing the soon-to-open Creekview Ranch Middle School and an eventual new elementary in Roseville – there’s also slew of planned smaller efforts. The end result? Shadier places to hang out on campus, better ball fields to exercise on and more computers with which to research homework, officials say.

The goodie-bag of more than 50 projects will begin in earnest this year and eventually affect every district school.

Just a few slated to start at existing sites during the 2009 fiscal year, which began July 1, include:

n “Digital classroom” technology: Each school (except Barrett Ranch, which already has the system) will receive anywhere from $137,000 to $250,000 to implement hardware and network improvements to the classroom. Major work starts this fiscal year at Olive Grove Elementary and Silverado Middle School.

The bulk of that money will pay for electronic interactive “smart board” displays and LCD projectors, and curriculum planners are currently drawing up plans for how best to implement the technology.

“Some of our grade levels may only want smart boards in science classrooms,” Superintendent Mark Geyer said. “What we’re going to do is plan it right, so we don’t just put smart boards in every classrooms and then they don’t get used.”

n Surveillance systems: Schools without systems will be upgraded with state-of-the-art cameras, which officials hope will take a bite out of vandalism. The crimes cost the district thousands each year, especially in the summer months, and officials estimate they could pay for themselves within a few years in saved expenses.

“It’s a preventive, but it’s also a safety and security issue,” said Gordon Medd, assistant superintendent of business services. “With 27 cameras on a middle school and signs that say you’re being watched, it reduces (worrisome) kinds of activities.”

Work has already started this summer at many district sites. Projects are slated to be finished during the 2009-2010 fiscal year at Coyote Ridge, Heritage Oak, Quail Glen, Antelope Meadows and Antelope Crossing Middle School. Cost: roughly $70,000 to $100,000 per elementary school; the larger ACMS is estimated at $190,000.

The district will also be reimbursed up to half of the cost for surveillance cameras through the Roseville Police Department and a Department of Justice COPS grant.

n Campus improvements: Barrett Ranch and Coyote Ridge will see steel shade structures go up this year, at a cost of $68,000 each. Quail Glen and Dry Creek will each get $35,000 worth of new computer lab equipment.

Down the line, students can also expect a complete overhaul of the ball fields at Silverado and Antelope Crossing middle schools, in projects that will start in the 2010 fiscal year, solving a problem that has long frustrated users.

On the Silverado ball field, “Drainage is so bad that half the year they can only use half the field,” Medd said. “It’s just not as usable as it should be.”

Also scheduled to start this year is a major upgrade of Dry Creek School, the district’s original site. About $3.3 million has been budgeted for improved ingress and egress at the school, which is located on an intersection that quickly becomes overwhelmed during peak periods. About $3.6 million has been budgeted for a long awaited multipurpose room, bringing the school in line with other facilities district wide, but a construction start date has not been scheduled.