By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— Grading and site work for Pelham Park Middle School can begin in January after the Pelham Board of Education awarded a $2,061,363 bid to Jordan Excavating, Inc., Dec. 7.

Superintendent Dr. Scott Coefield said the actual design of Pelham Park Middle School is still being completed. In order to speed up the process, the middle school project has been divided into two packages.

Board President Rick Rhoades commented that the bid for the site package came in higher than expected, but that this site work will get the Pelham Park school started.

Construction for Pelham High School’s labs and academy areas will also begin in January. The Board awarded a bid of $1.5 million to Williford Orman Construction, a Pelham based company that also handled the renovations to the gymnasium, at the Dec. 7 meeting as well.

The project will include the science labs, rooms for the academies, a special needs area and roof work for the lobby of PHS’s gym.

“Obviously these are great projects,” Rhoades said. “It’ll be exciting to see the upgrades to our labs at the high school, it’s going to improve them tremendously.”

The board also,

• Approved 11 personnel recommendations made by Coefield.
• Approved the new employee handbook.
• Approved a revised form of a real estate exchange contract with the city of Pelham that was previously addressed at the Nov. 9 meeting.
• Approved a resolution for extraordinary compensation.
• Awarded a CNP supplemental food bid of 4,827.78 to US Foods.