An aerial photo shows the progress being made on the new RTR pre-K-12 school under construction in Tyler. The main entrance of the building will face toward Lincoln County Road 8 in Tyler. At the far left of the photo are academic wings under construction, while at the right are gymnasiums.

TYLER — They’ve been working since last fall, but things are really starting to take shape at the site of Russell-Tyler-Ruthton’s new school building.

After months of construction, most of the outside walls for the school are standing, and some parts of the school, like the gymnasiums, are now enclosed.

RTR Superintendent David Marlette said the project is planned to be completed by the fall of 2021. The more immediate goal, however, is to have the exterior of the building done before this year’s frost.

“We should make our timeline,” Marlette said Monday.

Voters in the RTR school district approved the $35 million building project in a February 2019 referendum. Ground was broken in October for a 150,000 square foot school building, which will serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

“We got off to a little bit of a slow start” with the state permitting process for the project, Marlette said. However, the project had made up for some of the delay, he said. “Dollar-wise, we’re under budget,” Marlette said — he estimated the construction project was about three-quarters of a million dollars under budget so far.

Michael Beach, site construction manager for the project, said the new RTR school will have two academic wings, one for the elementary grades and one for the middle and high school grades. On Monday, construction crews were doing mortar work on what will be the upper story of the academic wings. On another part of the site, crews were putting in wall studs for what will become the RTR district office.

The new school is being built on land facing Lincoln County Road 8 on the west side of Tyler. Beach said the academic wings are being built on one side of the school, with a shop area, auditorium, competition gym and auxiliary gym on the other side. A commons and cafeteria area will be at the center of the building.

While the new school will consolidate RTR’s elementary, middle and high school grades together in one building, Beach said the building would still have touches that recognize each of the three communities in the RTR district. The auxiliary gym would have space for three basketball courts, and there are plans to preserve the old scoreboards from the schools in Russell, Tyler and Ruthton, he said.

Marlette said planning isn’t really over for the school project. Once the new school is completed, there’s still the question of what to do with the existing RTR school buildings in Russell, Tyler and Ruthton. Marlette said the school district has talked with each of the three cities, and asked for direction on what they want done with each of the old schools.

For example, he said, “Do they want us to tear down the building, or do they want to save part, like the gym?”

The existing RTR high school building in Tyler is slated to be torn down after the new school is complete. Marlette said funds for demolition were included in the project budget.