This fall, students and teachers returning to Hempfield High School can expect to be greeted by three temporary "guests."

The guests are not visiting foreign-exchange students or administrators, but three vinyl-sided modular units that will provide much-needed classroom space.

The three 60-by-28-foot units got a preliminary approval Wednesday night from the East Hempfield Township Planning Commission. The plan now goes to the township supervisors for consideration Wednesday.

The units, which would sit at the northwest corner of the Landisville high school campus, just off Stanley Avenue, are expected to be ready for Hempfield's first day of school, Monday, Aug. 30.

The school district doesn't want "to use this as a long-term solution" for its crowded classroom space at the high school, district official Daniel L. Forry told the township planning board Wednesday.

At the high school, "We now have 18 teachers and 12 supervisors who do not have classroom space, so this will help alleviate some of those concerns," said Forry, the district's director of enterprise and operations.

The modular units would be placed on a grass area adjacent to the car drop-off area near the school so they "will not impede any of the driveways or access ways," Forry said.

The high school expects to have 2,300 students for the 2010-11 school year, part of an overall district enrollment of around 7,000.

The township planning board, in backing the school district's trailer plan, also recommended a five-year limit to prevent the units from becoming permanent.

But Forry said Hempfield has no plans to make them a permanent part of the landscape.

The suburban district is conducting a feasibility study of its expected building-expansion needs over the next several years.

He said he expects that "our primary focus over the next few years is going to be with some elementary (school) additions and renovations, and that will then allow us some time to come back and look at the high school" and its growth needs.

Forry said he expects enrollment to be pretty constant at the high school over the next few years, although the enrollment at Hempfield's seven elementary schools has been growing rapidly in recent years.

District officials are now determining what classes will use the new trailers, although Forry said he expects them to be "standard classrooms. … There wouldn't be any science or family consumer science, no lab work," he said.

doconnor@lnpnews.com