The furniture should arrive at Ray Bjork sometime today as Hawthorne Elementary holds school at the temporary location.

Phone lines are supposed to be up and running by the end of the day too, principal Deb Jacobsen said at a well attended community meeting held Monday night.

A recent analysis of Hawthorne Elementary - one of the district's oldest schools - found cracks in some structural columns that likely occurred during an earthquake last year in Dillon, according to Tom Beaudette, engineer with Beaudette Consulting Engineers of Missoula.

Beaudette added that some of the damage has occurred as a result of time and the fact the building is made out of heavy concrete.

The main portion of the work is adding concrete walls and filling in some windows on the second floor. This would better distribute weight during a potential earthquake.

"The work needs to be done now to meet present standards and make it safe to occupy," Beaudette said.

The plans are currently being developed and will then require approval from the City of Helena. The work is likely to be completed sometime in December, Superintendent Bruce Messinger said.

Parents may drop off and pick up their children at Hawthorne as transportation has been arranged to bus them to Ray Bjork at 8:15 a.m. and return at 3:15 p.m. Parents are also welcome to drive their children to Ray Bjork. Breakfast and lunch will be served, it is likely to be cold lunch this week, but there will be plenty of food, Jacobsen said.

The school will hold physical education and music classes, although some logistics will be worked out over the next few days.

Beginning next week, one class per day will be allowed to use the Hawthorne library for about half an hour, giving children the opportunity to check out books. School officials didn't want to move all the books to the temporary location

Hawthorne students will not have to make up the day off Monday because of the emergency declaration the board of trustees made.

Jacobsen said the entire process has been a "remarkable community effort and reaffirms that our focus is our kids."