SAN MARCOS – Joli Ann Leichtag Elementary School is a picture of controlled chaos this week. Crews have been testing fire alarms, washing windows and spreading asphalt while teachers have been unpacking dozens of boxes.

But Tuesday morning, the new campus will sparkle for the San Marcos Unified School District's first day of school. The district delayed its start of school from August to September this year to save on utilities.

Like many new schools, Leichtag will be outfitted with the latest technology. Every classroom has LCD projectors, cameras that project documents on white boards (no more overheads) and wireless microphones so teachers can enhance their voices. The younger students have three computers in each classroom, and the older ones have five.

Parents and students can get an early look at the school during a family tour today.

The $24.5 million school is named after Joli Ann Leichtag, a former kindergarten teacher and businesswoman who died of cancer in 2007. Last year, her family's foundation gave the district a $6 million endowment.

School officials expect about 750 students. The new school should reduce crowding in elementary schools such as Alvin Dunn, Carrillo and Paloma.

The library, which contains about 8,400 books, is Principal Eric Forseth's favorite spot. He likes the panoramic views of the campus through the library's large windows and the wood paneling near the high ceiling. It also sports the colors of the campus, including tan, blue and cinnamon.

DETAILS Family Tour When: 5 to 6:30 p.m. today Where: Joli Ann Leichtag Elementary School, 653 Poinsettia Ave. What: Families with children attending the new school next week will be able to tour the campus. The school will officially open Tuesday.

After about 14 months of construction and a few delays, the school is ready, with one exception: the playing field. It will take a few months for the grass to grow in, but students will be able to use the playground immediately, Forseth said.

The principal said he is ready for Tuesday. “You work on something for so long. . . . To be able to attach faces is going to be a lot of fun.”

Teachers at Leichtag said they enjoy preparing their rooms for the first day, but their level of excitement has kicked up a notch this year. They know their students will be excited to be at a new school.

“Everything's going to be new for everyone,” fourth-grade teacher Christine Miringoff said.

Being at a new school energizes teachers, too.

“This is every teacher's dream to be here,” third-grade teacher Diana Brown said while unpacking. “The technology. Everything's new. It's beautiful.”

Brown said she drove by the school a few times over the summer to check on the construction.

“It's such a privilege and opportunity to see each little person walk through the door and wonder how our lives are going to connect,” she said.

For teachers, the first day also means doing a lot of cutting, pasting and laminating. Miringoff scoured the Internet and searched Google images to make picture books about topics such as the Luiseño Indians.

Teachers have blank canvases in decorating their rooms. But, Miringoff said, teachers don't just make them pretty.

They design with purpose, she said, by using walls to display their students' essays and creating bulletin boards with vocabulary words, math skills and other curriculum. Teachers at Leichtag, like other teachers in the district, will add college-related items, such as pennants, in their classrooms to plant the idea in young minds of attending college .

San Marcos Unified has a college-bound partnership with Cal State San Marcos that offers eligible students guaranteed admission.

How much teachers spend on classroom materials depends on what they have already and if they want to use extra stuff. Miringoff said she spent about $200 on plastic containers, yarn, cloth, Popsicle sticks, books at yard sales and reward prizes, such as bouncy balls and bracelets.

Brown, who has taught for 16 years, said she had plenty of supplies from previous years to start with but will add items throughout the year.

First-grade teacher Gina Pawlaczyk said she spent a couple of hundred dollars to spiff up her room. On Tuesday, she had set up one corner of her room with a rainbow-colored beach umbrella, two small beach chairs in red and blue, and a child-sized white bench. The area – next to a window, a rug and bookshelves – will be her students' reading space.

Her design scheme? “Neat and organized but colorful and engaging for the kids,” Pawlaczyk said. “I love a colorful room.”

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Linda Lou: (760) 737-7574; linda.lou@uniontrib.com