Ask Rock Island Associate Superintendent Mike Oberhaus when it last rained in the Quad-Cities and, without hesitation, he happily answers.

Twenty-two days.

The dry weather has offered construction workers in the Rock Island-Milan School District a much-needed reprieve from conditions that significantly delayed work at the new Rock Island Center for Math and Science.

The weather and an unexpected old foundation had set the project back by as much as 12 weeks and pushed it $400,000 over budget.

In recent weeks, they have regained some of that lost time and are almost back on their original timeline. Right now, leaders expect to complete the $10.7 million new school by June, Oberhaus said.

At the construction site, all of the exterior and some interior walls are up. On an average day, more than 80 workers are pouring concrete, putting up masonry, installing electricity and hauling materials to and from the building, among other things. By November, officials expect everything on the exterior to be sealed, so work on the interior can get under way.

"Overall, we are pleased with the progress that has been made," Oberhaus said. "Obviously, we had a glitch at the new school site, but we took steps to insure we have a building that will last many, many years."

District leaders will dip into their $29 million in reserves to cover the unanticipated expenses, most of which came from removing the old brick foundation that was as much as 20 feet deep in some areas, said Ben Hott, construction manager for the district.

Additionally, workers had to add silt fencing and rock checks, among other things, to stop soil erosion on the northeast and west corner of the old Villa de Chantal property where the school is being built, Oberhaus said.

"We put aside in our planning $2 million to $4 million to handle unforeseen costs," Oberhaus said. "We didn't anticipate using it at the new school. We thought it would be more at the existing schools, because the blueprints you have don't always accurately reflect what's behind a wall. We've had some of that with the other projects, but not a lot. We've been fortunate so far."

As work at the new school continues, the students who will fill it are back in the classroom for the 2008-09 school year.

Originally, leaders anticipated opening the new building in time for at least part of the school year, but the delays made it impossible.

That didn't stop the district from starting the math and science program. They moved students in kindergarten through second grade to the old Horace Mann Choice School and those in grades 3-6 to the former Audubon Elementary School, which closed this school year.

Marji Boeye, who has a son in kindergarten and another in fourth grade enrolled in the program, said it was an adjustment for their family at the beginning of the school year. But the district helped ease the transition by providing social activities for new families to get to know one another and a shuttle that runs between Horace Mann and Audubon, among other things, she said.

"One of the big challenges in the beginning was that there were so many new faces," Boeye said. "It's a bit of a melting pot from the district."