With a districtwide staff meeting, sports teams practicing on the new auxiliary field and the season’s first “Friday Night Lights” football game, the Northampton Area School District is ready for the Aug. 29 start of the 2016-17 school year.

On a crisp August afternoon with a hint of autumn in the breeze under a cloud-dappled blue sky, the boys soccer team played a practice game on the auxiliary field, where the old Northampton Area Middle School stood about one year ago.

“These fields will be used every day,” NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik told a reporter for Northampton Press prior to the Aug. 22 NASD board of education meeting.

The varsity football team was practicing in Al Erdosy Memorial Stadium on the artificial-turf Lou Wolf Field, to be dedicated at the Sept. 23 football game.

The girls soccer team next took to the auxiliary field for practice. Kovalchik noted the durability of the artificial turf for multiple use: “With grass, you couldn’t do that.”

The first test of the $80.7 million Middle School and Campus Renovation Project occurs Aug. 26 with the Northampton Konkrete Kids varsity football team’s home opener for the 2016 season.

Fans of Northampton and visiting East Stroudsburg North can purchase tickets at the new brick box office and descend new concrete steps. An adjacent concrete ramp provides access for persons with disabilities, as well as for athletic staff, maintenance and emergency vehicles.

The stadium has an expanded concrete plaza that includes paver bricks, still available for purchase with an inscribed dedication, as a fundraiser for Northampton Area Konkrete Kids Education Foundation.

The middle school west entrance is directly off the new loop, where 50 buses drop off and pick up middle and high school students. The entrance is also for the natatorium and gymnasium. A concession stand door will be open for fans attending games on the auxiliary field. Outdoor tables are nearby.

The bus loop has 180 parking spaces for after-school events. There are also parking spaces along the auxiliary field’s north side. Games can be viewed there from vehicles. Fans can also sit on a slope overlooking the field. Two bleachers are on the field’s south side.

Kovalchik estimates that with bus loop parking, plus an additional 180 spaces on the middle school faculty lot and existing spaces on lots in front of Erdosy and the high school, secondary campus after-school event parking increases from about 400 to 600 spaces.

Each bus pulls in diagonally to about 4 feet from the curb. The bus driver won’t need to back up. Rather, he or she steers the bus to the left and exits.

The bus loop drive is one-way north off of Al Erdosy Drive. Directional signs will be in place for opening day. The student memorial area just south of the cafeteria entrance to the high school is to be completed.

Traffic flows west from the loop parking area to Al Erdosy Drive and then exits onto Kids Way and Laubach Avenue. A new wide sidewalk has been installed. “This is the first time we have a sidewalk going all around the high school building,” Kovalchik said.

Surveying the expanded secondary campus that overlooks the Borough of Northampton, Kovalchik said, “The end result here is a magnificent education complex for our students and the entire community. It’s something to be proud of.”

The big test of the renovated campus is Aug. 29, first day of the 2016-17 school year for an estimated 5,700 students.

On a typical school day, an estimated 3,200 students and 300 staff are on the secondary campus.

About 40 faculty, administrators and security staff are to be outside on the secondary campus to assist with opening day traffic flow.

Secondary campus traffic directions, including those for parents dropping off and picking up students, and for students driving and parking their own cars, are on the NASD website at nasdschools.org/spotlight.cfm?sp=227.

An estimated 650 faculty and staff, along with several school board members, attended an assembly in the high school auditorium during the first in-service staff day, Aug. 22.

“It was light-hearted but serious in that we try to improve every area of this school district,” Kovalchik reported at the Aug. 22 board meeting.

“It’s an exciting time. The campus was very lively (the afternoon of Aug. 22). The students were using the fields that you approved,” Kovalchik told the seven board members present.

Kovalchik thanked administrators, especially NASD Director of Operations Robert J. Yanders, for ensuring the campus is ready for opening day.

School Director Dr. Michael Baird, who attended the staff assembly, lauded Kovalchik, NASD Director of Curriculum and Instruction Lydia Hanner and school board President David Gogel, who also spoke at the assembly.

“It’s a reflection on the school district that parents want to take their children here,” Baird said.