TEMECULA -- A major renovation of Temecula Valley High School has prompted officials to build new parking lots, close others, and alter an established flow of traffic circulation, changes officials said they hope parents and students take note of before the first day of school.

"We are telling everybody, students and parents alike, to just be patient with us," said Assistant Principal Mark Chavez. "Obviously, with all the construction going on, we are doing our best to accommodate them. It's going to be chaotic a little bit in the first few days."

Officials are sending letters home and e-mailing families to let them know about the changes.

Many seniors will still be allowed to park in an eastern campus parking lot that will also continue to serve as a parent and student pickup and dropoff location, Chavez said.

A nearby overflow lot on the northeastern side of the campus is closed, as it is now housing tennis courts so officials can build a pool and gym where the courts once stood.

Much of the eastern lot also now consists of large mounds of dirt, and officials are in the process of adding about 300 new parking spaces on the west side of the campus to make up for the loss.

Those spaces are expected to be ready for the first day of school Aug. 21.

One of the biggest changes to the circulation plan is that seniors who do not get a spot in the eastern lot, as well as juniors and sophomores who drive to and park at school, must now park along the western side of the campus. The eastern senior parking lot is based on a lottery system.

The western lot will be divided by grades and a fence, with seniors on one side and juniors and sophomores on the other side.

School officials are asking sophomores and juniors entering the western parking lot to do so while heading north along Margarita Road and then taking a right, into a new access point into the campus that students will also use to exit the lot.

As for seniors who park in the western lot, officials are asking those students to enter the campus by heading east on Rancho Vista Road and then taking the first right into the campus, officials said. Those same seniors will exit that lot through Margarita Road, officials said.

There is roughly the same number of parking spaces this year as last year, and Temecula Valley High has fewer students because Great Oak High is taking on a senior class this year, officials said.

- Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jkabbany@californian.com.