Ginno Construction Co., of Coeur d'Alene, has been awarded a $3.7 million construction contract to remodel Lakes Magnet Middle School in Coeur d'Alene.

Coeur d'Alene School District spokeswoman Janet Feiler says the total project cost is expected to be about $4.8 million, including construction, design fees, furnishings, and other costs. Feiler says work started early last month at the school, located at 930 N. 15th St., and is scheduled to be completed by the end of August, in time for the start of the next school year.

G.D. Longwell Architects PLLC, of Hayden Lake, is the project architect, she says.

The remodeling is intended to improve the energy efficiency of the two-story, 75,400-square-foot structure and to increase the size of some classrooms, she says.

The middle school currently has 39 classrooms, but will have 30 after the remodeling is completed, Feiler says. Construction plans call for removing walls inside the school to form 25 900-square-foot classrooms, and remodeling five 600-square-foot classrooms, she says.

The building also will be made more energy efficient, with new windows, insulation, and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems, Feiler says.

The school was built in 1952 as a high school and became a middle school when Coeur d'Alene High School was built in 1969. During the past school year, the middle school had a student population of 662, with students in the sixth through eighth grades, Feiler says.

She says the school was renamed Lakes Magnet Middle School, from Lakes Middle School, in May.