School District of Lancaster officials will find out at the end of the month how much the first of four proposed school renovation projects will cost the district.

Officials are scheduled to open construction bids Dec. 30 on the proposed $16.7 million upgrade of Washington Elementary School.

They're hoping the sluggish economy and increased competition from contractors will result in low bids on the project, the first of four scheduled to get under way in the next five months.

Dan Cicala, a construction administrator hired by the district to oversee the four projects, said he's never seen so much competition among contractors.

About 35 companies have picked up construction documents for bidding; how many of them will actually submit bids won't be known until later this month.

The Washington project is the most ambitious of the four elementary school upgrades planned in the first phase of a proposed $198 million overhaul of 16 SDL schools over the next decade.

Wharton, Lafayette and Ross elementary schools also are slated for renovations beginning next year.

The Washington project will include a 43,000-square-foot addition with 12 classrooms, a gymnasium, a cafeteria, administrative offices and a new main entrance.

The school's modular classrooms will be removed, and the existing gym will be converted to a library.

Other classrooms will receive major upgrades, and heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and electrical systems will be overhauled.

The school board is scheduled to award bids in January. Construction could begin in February, with completion expected by March 2011.

The addition will be built first so students can move into the new building, enabling workers to renovate the existing school in two phases.

SDL has secured about $48 million, including $45 million in bonds and nearly $3 million in interest revenue, for the four elementary school projects.

The district floated construction bonds in 2007, when interest rates were much lower than they are in today's unstable economy.

Taxpayers began repaying the bonds in 2007-08 at rates of 3.5 percent to 4.25 percent, Matt Przywara, SDL chief financial officer, said.

If the district were to borrow the money today, it would pay interest "in the low 5 percent range," said Ken Phillips of RBC Capital Markets, an investment banker who advises SDL and 12 other local school districts.

Przywara said SDL won't have to begin planning for additional borrowing for the second phase of the project until next spring at the earliest.

By then, he said, rates are likely to have dropped somewhat.

The cost of construction on the four elementary schools is expected to total about $44.4 million. Fees for the architect and construction administrator will add about $3.5 million to that total, Greg Collins, SDL coordinator of capital projects, said.

Work on Lafayette is expected to begin in April and on Wharton and Ross in May.

Construction work on the three schools should be completed by September 2010, Collins said.

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com