A special meeting was held Thursday for the Pella School Board to accept bids for phase one of construction for the new Early Childhood Learning Center. Superintendent Greg Ebeling says the board gave the go-ahead for a pair of contracts related to site work and paving.

The board approved a $826,000 contract with Sandstone Management for Site Work and $246,000 contract with Jordison Construction for paving. Combined, the projects came in approximately $70,000 above the engineers estimates, which Ebeling says was not surprising considering the current economic environment, and he anticipates they are still largely on track for the overall bond issue package.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Early Childhood Center will be held before the second regular session of the summer for the board at Madison Elementary on Thursday, July 14th.