At just over $27 million, Spokane’s Lydig Construction, won the bid to remodel Skyline High School.

The Issaquah School Board approved the contract at its meeting on July 9.

However, some clearing and grading work was started on Tuesday — before the city had a chance to issue permits, said Kamuron Gurol, Community Development director for the city.

Officials received calls from some residents who live near the site and were concerned that several significant trees were being taken down that they thought were supposed to remain on the site, Gurol said.

“We asked them to stop that. We did authorize them to clean up the debris piles and stabilize the site for erosion control,” he said. In addition to the clearing work, several portables were brought onto the site, also without permits.

“I don’t think they have any permits right now,” Gurol said. “We’re going to be ready to work with them and get them properly permitted as soon as we can.”

That process may take several months, however. Senior Planner Evan Maxim said staff members are currently looking at the land use permit, landscaping, traffic circulation, parking lot design and drainage.

District Director of Communications Sara Niegowski said that the contractor “jumped the gun” a bit, but stopped once the workers were notified they did not have a permit.

In the competitive bid process, Lydig beat out five other companies for the job.

“It’s encouraging to see that kind of interest,” Director of Capital Projects Steve Crawford said.

In the last few projects Crawford said they were lucky to get two or three contractors.

All the bids were very close, Crawford said.

“Two and three were the same,” Crawford said. “That’s the fist time I’ve ever seen that.”

The bids were so low that the district was able to add on some additional projects and still have some contingency funds left over.

The additional projects include a gym divider curtain, additional lighting and better conduits.

Preparation for the project is already underway, as classrooms have already started to be cleaned out and stripped.

“We’re still on track to have capacity of classrooms in ’09,” Crawford told the board.

Skyline is undergoing the remodel after the board decided to bring the ninth-graders back to the high schools rather than build a new middle school. The Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus building will become a middle school. In order to provide for additional students at Skyline, more classrooms and science labs are needed. The Commons is also being expanded to allow for the bigger population.

The freshmen will be joining the school in fall 2009 when the construction project has advanced enough for the classroom space to be available. The district hopes for the whole project to be finalized in spring of 2010, Crawford said.

The district is also undergoing construction projects at Issaquah High School, where the summer work is focusing getting portables and temporary classrooms and offices ready and hooked up to utilities before the demolition can begin.

The district is still working on its overall site permit and building permit for the Issaquah High project, Crawford said. The city and the architect are still debating over a few minor issues regarding the size of exits. Those are expected to be finalized shortly.

Editor Wendy Giroux contributed to this article.