SNOHOMISH — Time is running out for Machias and Riverview elementary schools.

The last day of classes on Thursday will be followed by demolition crews, who will start to pick apart the campuses to salvage materials that can be reused.

Both schools will share the former Snohomish Freshman Campus in downtown Snohomish next year while new buildings are erected on their current sites.

With the temporary quarters, Machias Principal Ginny Schilaty will give up the view from her office window of horses in the pasture next door.

She figures it will be a small price to pay.

She knows her students will return to a vastly improved campus. Machias and Riverview are expected to be ready during the 2010-11 school year.

“We have maxed it out the best we can,” Schilaty said. “It would take more money to fix than to replace.”

Machias was built in 1969; Riverview in 1966.

Earlier this month, Machias students and faculty took time for a final school-wide photo that will become part of the new campus.

At Riverview, roughly 350 people, including some of the school’s original teachers, turned out last week for a goodbye ceremony.

The evening was a time to reminisce about friendships forged on playgrounds, favorite teachers and escapes by classroom hamsters, an iguana and a monkey whose brief freedom ended when he was outwitted by a cagey custodian armed with bananas. Adults in their 40s caught up with teachers they had in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Memories were recorded last week on postcard-sized sheets; a slide show was reshown many times over the course of the evening.

“The good-bye celebration was like a huge Riverview community reunion,” said Principal Tammy Jones. “It was a reminder that Riverview really isn’t about a building. It’s really about people — the parents, students and teachers. It’s about the history and everyone who has made Riverview what it is today.”

Construction bids for the projects are expected in early November. Each two-story school could cost $39 million, according to original estimates that were part of a $261 million bond measure voters approved in May of 2008. The new buildings will be wired for new computer technologies, and both will use geothermal energy for heating.

“As soon as kids are gone, the great exodus begins,” said J.Marie Riche, a spokeswoman for the Snohomish School District.

Passers-by won’t see much change at the schools from the outside until late July. Crews will be removing beams from the old schools to reuse in the new ones. Eventually, the old brick will be ground up and used in the foundations of the new campuses.

Lannatt Schuler, who has a first-grader and a fifth-grader at Machias, is ready for the transition.

“To me, it is time for it to go, but I do love the history,” she said. “It’s bittersweet, but we do need the new school.”

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.