Board members approved plans this week to modernize two campuses that will reopen in September as middle schools. The work will force hundreds of students into portable classrooms throughout the school year.

The Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District budgeted as much as $3.5 million to paint and install new lighting, windows, carpeting and drapes at Corvallis Middle School in Norwalk and Benton Middle School in La Mirada. The campuses, which had been closed for 14 years, are among six middle schools the district will open this fall.

The middle schools will serve students in grades six through eight. Students had attended elementary school until entering high school in the eighth grade.