A consortium of three North Idaho school districts has selected Coeur d'Alene-based Contractors Northwest Inc., to be the general contractor for the Kootenai Technical Education Campus planned on the Rathdrum Prairie.

CNI was the lowest bidder with a bid of $7.9 million on the project, which will involve constructing a 54,000-square-foot building on a 20-acre site at the southwest corner of Meyer and Lancaster roads, on the south edge of Rathdrum. Construction is scheduled to begin this month, and the school will be open to students in the fall of 2012, CNI says.

Longwell+Trapp Architects PLLC, of Hayden, designed the project.

The "hybrid high school" will offer applied-skill learning with opportunities for dual enrollment credits and industrial certifications, KTEC's website says. KTEC plans to provide courses with hands-on instruction in manufacturing, construction, allied-health welding, and automotive skills.

The professional-technical high school will be administered through the Lakeland, Post Falls, and Coeur d'Alene school districts.

KTEC was conceived through a partnership with business and industry leaders, the three school districts, and area manufacturers.

Voters in the school districts last year approved a $9.5 million levy to finance the project.

"CNI is a strong believer that high school students should have choices, one of which should be technical training in a field of interest," Dean Haagenson, CEO and founder of CNI says in a press release about the project. "Students with such training are in high demand."

Other bidders for the project included Ginno Construction Co., of Coeur d'Alene, and Meridian Construction Inc., of Spokane Valley.