Lydig Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the low bidder, at $4 million, for a school construction project in Valley, Wash., about 40 miles north of Spokane.

Lydig will build a 17,000-square-foot building for Valley School District 70's Homelink program, which serves more than 1,500 home-schooled children, says Kraig Kalisch, the district's facility supervisor.

The project will include construction of the building and associated landscaping. The building will house the Homelink program teachers' offices as well as the district's administrative offices. It will have three wings that will consist of teaching "pods" and offices for each of about 20 teachers who work in the Homelink program there.

Construction was to begin as soon as the district awarded the contract in mid-August, and is slated to be completed in July 2010. ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, designed the project, he says.

He says the Homelink program has been successful, drawing in many families from around the state who opt in to the district for educational support for their homeschooled children via the Internet and on-site programs. A teacher in the Homelink program can serve up to 100 students, Kalisch says.

In recent years, the district also has upgraded its conventional school buildings, which serve about 220 students, in $10 million worth of modernization and expansion projects. Currently, Homelink teachers are clustered in portable buildings.