ith all the changes at Panther Valley High School this summer, one wouldn't fault teachers for asking for an extra week to prepare before students report.

But the mood among seventh- and eighth-grade teachers who moved from the middle to the high school this summer is actually the exact opposite.For them, things will be getting back to normal when students come through the door next Monday."I keep saying, 'Just get me in the classroom and let me teach,'" Nancy Gardiner, a seventh- and eighth-grade language arts teacher, said on Wednesday."Then everything will be great."On Monday, nearly half of the students in the Panther Valley will be reporting to a different school building than they did last year.School administrators decided to move four grades in order to handle its large elementary school population, which in recent years forced them to rely on trailers.Superintendent Dennis Kergick said the plan was in place before he came to the district in 2014, but he quickly recognized there was a need to create more space for the population in the lower grades."It was already established, but it was something that I knew I would have had to address down the line," Kergick said.The key to opening up that classroom space was a 24-classroom addition to Panther Valley High School.The new wing will be used exclusively for seventh- and eighth grade students. In past years, those grades attended Panther Valley Intermediate School.Fourth- and fifth-graders, who previously attended Panther Valley Elementary, will now attend the intermediate school. By moving those students, the district will be able to get rid of the trailers, which were less than ideal for educating the young students."There area a lot of trailers there now, the vast majority of them will be gone," Kergick said.Before moving those grades, the elementary school had about half of the district's 1,800 students.The move actually enables the school to boost the number of electives it offers students. German and music teachers who previously taught part time at the high school will now be there full time.A technology education teacher who previously taught at the middle school will now teach at the high school.The teacher, Janet Branchide, said there hasn't been a tech ed program at Panther Valley High for nearly 10 years.Kergick says the school is proud to create more options for high-achieving students to enrich themselves, and build the school's athletic and music programs."We address struggling students well, but for kids who are proficient and advanced, we are missing the boat a bit," he said.While they will eat in the same lunch room and ride the same buses as the high school, seventh- and eighth-grade students will be mostly cut off from their older counterparts.Kergick said that with the large age gap, administrators have strived to ensure that there is a divide between the two populations.They will have a separate entrance for school buses, and eat lunch at different times."There is some fear of intermingling the two," Kergick said. "But the cafeteria, gym and library will be the only shared spaces."