At a special meeting March 25, the Sumner School District’s board of directors accepted a bid for construction of the Lakeridge Middle School replacement.

Ann Cook, the district’s community relations specialist, said of six qualified bids, the low-to-high price tags ran a gamut of $1.5 million, with the winning bid being from Porter Brothers Construction.

“It’s a very competitive bidding environment, which is good for our taxpayers,” Cook said.

She said the bid amount is slightly more than $20 million, which is lower than the district’s estimate for the project, which will build a new school building and renovate parts of the existing one.

Students will attend classes in the current middle school building while the new one is being constructed, so students will not be relocated, Cook said.

Construction is expected to begin soon.

“We anticipate having a great little groundbreaking before the end of school this year,” Cook said.

Reach Chaz Holmes at cholmes@courierherald.com or call 360-802-8208.