Peter Bedard, special education teacher at the new Walter E. Ranger Elementary School, introduces his daughter, Hannah, 8, to her new fourth grade teacher, Hally Azevedo, right. At center is Ginny Curtis, a fourth grade teacher who will work with Bedard in the classroom next door.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

TIVERTON — The brand new Walter E. Ranger Elementary School on North Brayton Road will open its doors tomorrow for the first time to about 350 children in kindergarten through grade four.

Since Friday afternoon, there has been a crush of preparations involving principal Tom Gastall and his staff, including many teachers who went in over the weekend to set up their new rooms.

The teachers’ union has pledged its members will show up for the first day of school, as usual, despite that it filed last week for compulsory mediation to renegotiate a contract that expires the day after tomorrow.

The union submitted a new proposal with “significant” change to Schools Supt. William J. Rearick last Friday, according to Amy Mullen, president of the National Education Association – Tiverton.

The new Ranger school, meanwhile, was to have been ready to receive teachers, books, and supplies by mid-August, according to a school newsletter published at the end of the academic year last June.

But teachers could not enter the building until a certificate of occupancy was issued about 3 p.m. Friday.

Earlier in the week, fire sprinklers had not been operating properly and fire officials would not sign off on the certificate, according to Denise deMedeiros, president of the School Committee.

Yesterday, Jaime Senra, of Ahlborg Construction, said he was overseeing last-minute tasks such as the final tune-up on the boiler and the testing of emergency lights, while Gastall, the principal, talked to Verizon employees about getting the phones to work.

The new, light-filled building with cantilevered roofs replaces an old school with the same name on Stafford Road.

With the town’s other two elementary schools scheduled for renovations during the upcoming school year, the former Ranger school building will remain in use to provide a temporary home for the staff and students of the Pocasset Elementary School.

Similarly, the Nonquit School, on Puncatest Neck Road, has been outfitted with a new boiler and has been reopened to serve the Fort Barton Elementary School. It formerly housed the Head Start program in town.

Principal Suzette Wordell said yesterday that Nonquit will accommodate about 125 of about 200 children enrolled at Fort Barton.

Most of the remaining Fort Barton students will attend the new Ranger school for a year, with the same teachers they would have had if there had been no move, Wordell said.

Mullen, the union president, said teachers are eager to get negotiations behind them and settle into the new school year.

Last week, deMedeiros, the School Committee president, had criticized the teachers’ most recent offer as too expensive. She said it failed to support claims of significant savings in an alternate health-insurance plan with a high deductible and health savings account.

But Mullen said the union submitted a new offer last Friday which the School Committee has not yet had a chance to review.

Proposed savings in the cost of health insurance are based on assertions made by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Mullen said.

The union has proposed that any savings be applied toward lowering class sizes, particularly at the elementary level, she said.

Although the union does not expect to hear from a mediator for another week or two, Mullen said, it is available for negotiations in the interim.

The School Committee will have a chance to review the union’s latest offer in executive session at a meeting tonight.

gmacris@projo.com