Lakeland Village School is undergoing a summer makeover, being transformed from a middle school to a campus that will house children in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Trustees for the Lake Elsinore Unified School District voted in December to close the nearby Butterfield Elementary School and convert Lakeland Village Middle School to the district's first K-8 campus.

Construction on the campus started even before school ended the first week of June, said Rita Post, the school's new principal. She said all the work will be complete by the time classes resume on Aug. 11.

Seven portable buildings have been installed and extra bathrooms have been added as part of the project.

On Monday, tradesmen were working on a jungle gym structure and adding protective padding in the kindergarten playground.

When the plan to convert the school to serve older as well as younger students was announced last year, some parents expressed concern about younger children mingling with young teens.

But Post said Monday that those concerns have been addressed, adding that the campus has been reconfigured to keep kindergarten, elementary and middle school students apart.

"There will be separate playgrounds, separate lunch times and separate drop-off and pickup (areas)," Post said. "There will be a lot of separating through scheduling."

Restrooms also will be separated, as will computer labs. The library will be divided by grade level as well, she added.

When classes begin at Lakeland Village School in 15 days, about 1,200 students are expected be enrolled, including about 450 middle school students. Post said there will be 54 teachers on staff.

"We will be using every single classroom on the campus," she said.

The majority of the students and teachers on campus for the first day of school will be in class there for the first time.

Five extra employees will be on campus the first couple weeks to make sure everyone gets to where they are supposed to be, Post said.

"Everything is different than it was last year," she said. "We need as many eyes as we can to see if we need changes."

Up to $1.7 million is expected to be spent remodeling the former middle school, which opened in 2006 at a cost of $28 million.

Luiseno Elementary, the district's northern most campus in Horsethief Canyon, also is being converted to K-8, but that change will be phased in, starting with sixth-graders in the fall, followed by seventh-graders next year and eighth-graders in 2012-13.

The decision to convert the two campuses was made as the school district was working to close a $10 million budget deficit for this fiscal year, which began July 1. Officials have said that closing Butterfield will save the district $813,000 per year on salaries and operational costs.

Despite that savings, however, Lake Elsinore Unified is looking at spending $4.7 million more than it takes in over the next 12 months.

In June, the board approved a budget projecting $149 million in revenues and $154 million in expenditures during the 2010-11 fiscal year. The spending plan is being balanced by pulling money from the district's reserve account.

Post said she is excited by the opportunity to lead the district's first K-8 school. She comes from Elsinore Elementary and was principal at Canyon Lake Middle School before that.

"I really enjoy the middle school age and I enjoy elementary school, too," Post said. "To be able to come to a K-8 school, in my opinion, is the best of both worlds."

Call staff writer Craig Shultz at 951-676-4315, ext. 2625.