PRIEST RIVER — The West Bonner County School District has taken a big step forward on its proposed career and technical education building, accepting a bid to begin construction of a facility to house its forestry and natural resources program.

The district has been working toward a forestry and natural resources pathway for its career and technical education program for several years. The program will teach skills ranging from forestry services, timber operations and production to wildlife ecology and management, giving students a clear path to timber industry careers.

At its Nov. 19 meeting, the board unanimously approved a motion to accept a $692,717 bid from Coeur d’Alene-based Ginno Construction to build a roughly 4,000-square-foot building.

While the district had estimated the building would cost about $500,000, all seven bids received for construction of the career and technical education building were above that amount, with bids ranging from $692,717 to $1.156 million. Bids came in at about $173 per square foot, compared with the average of $200 to $400 for a commercial building, which includes schools.

Most of the funding will come from an Idaho Career Ready Student grant aimed at expanding career and technical education programs in the state. Previously, the board earmarked $500,000 for construction of the building, with the remainder of the $752,240 grant going toward equipment.

To help with construction, Spacek said WBCSD has about $192,000 left from funds it received through House Bill 292, and those funds could be applied to the building’s cost.

“Even within that $500,000, it was not a completed building but a building that was supposed to be put up and then I think the original idea was to have people come in and finish it,” Spacek told the board.

Spacek recommended accepting the bid from Coeur d’Alene-based Ginno Construction and work with the company to bring the cost down.

In making the motion to accept the bid, trustee Paul Turco agreed, saying he was OK with spending the money to get the project moving forward.

“Sometimes you have to spend money to make money,” he said. “And with where education is going, and all of our presentations today with CTE and Advanced Placement, and things like that, we’re on the right track. And by doing this and showing the community that we are investing in our students, I think this is going to pay us back in dividends in the future.”

Turco said continuing to wait in hopes bids would drop isn’t likely to end in a lower cost.

“I move we go with Ginno Construction’s bid and start moving forward with the project,” said Turco, with the motion seconded by trustee Delbert Pound.

To help mitigate costs, Architects West and district officials explored various options, including eliminating a planned bathroom and covered area. However, the savings were minimal in the case of the covered area or were required by county officials, as was the case with plumbing and a bathroom for the CTE building.

With bids for lumber on the high side, Spacek said the district approached Idaho Forest Group, which offered to donate 2-by-4 and 2-by-6 lumber to the project.

“That’s not the entire lumber but it’s a good portion of it,” the WBCSD superintendent said.

The donation dropped the cost of lumber to $113,000, a significant savings, he told the board.

Spacek told the board that the company was pleased to be able to help.

“They want to be more involved with what’s going on at the school,” he said. “They are happy to donate and be a partner in the building.”

If the board rejects the bids, Spacek said roughly 80% of the companies might submit a second bid. However, the district could be taking a risk in doing so.

“The risk we would be taking is they would know what we’re looking at and they could bid higher yet because they know that we’re really looking to get the building built,” Spacek said.