Three bids were opened Thursday afternoon for the construction of the new Priceville High School with the low bid coming in at $1,342,000 over the base bid budget.

The budget for the base bid was $18.4 million. Baggette Construction of Decatur had the low base bid at $19,742,000, Argo Construction of Birmingham came in second at $20,880,637 and Rabren General Contractors of Auburn followed at $21,348,000.

Fifteen alternates were included in the bid package.

Bids were opened by GBW Architects John Godwin and Jacob Woods.

Godwin said the bids would go through an evaluation process before being presented to the school board for consideration.

“The bids came in at about where we expected they would,” said Morgan County Superintendent

Bill Hopkins, Jr. “We decided beforehand to keep some really nice features in the bid package to see if they would come in at a price we could afford. Now that we know the low bid is over budget, we’ll working with Baggette to make some changes to meet budget.”

Hopkins said he expects to have a recommendation for approval of the low bid at the next regular meeting on March 13.

The new school will be located on a 55-acre tract on North Bethel Road and will accommodate 800 students. It is expected to cost approximately $25 million. The projected opening date is August 2015.