By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

The Pelham Board of Education likely will launch its first website in late January after the board hired a company to build the site during its Jan. 14 meeting.

During the meeting, the School Board voted unanimously to enter into a six-month contract with the SchoolinSites company to construct the upcoming Pelham school system’s home on the Internet.

Through the contract, the School Board will pay the company $878 to build the site, which will come with unlimited bandwidth and number of pages, said School Board member Angie Hester.

“I think that’s a great deal,” Hester said.

SchoolinSites typically charges $1,800 per year plus a $500 one-time setup fee to build and maintain a website. However, through the E-rate program, the Pelham School Board received a discount based on the number of Pelham students on the free and reduced-price lunch program, bringing the total fee to $878.

Hester said it will take SchoolinSites about 14 days to bring the school system’s basic site online, and said she is planning to link the website to Facebook. After the Jan. 14 meeting, Hester said the site’s URL address had not yet been finalized.

“That will be our face to a lot of people,” said School Board President Rick Rhoades.