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NATCHEZ — On Wednesday, the Natchez Adams School District Board of Trustees awarded a contract to renovate Natchez High School to Paul Jackson & Sons of Brookhaven, who submitted the low bid of $7,746,000 for the project.

The district received two other bids for the project that they opened last week, including Don Barron Contractor Inc. of Farmerville, Louisiana, for $9.2 million and Sullivan Enterprises Inc. of Magee for $10.5 million.

The project scope includes renovation of the existing high school for a new middle school adjacent to where the new Natchez High School will be built as well as installing a new HVAC system for the gymnasium, repairs to the HVAC system for the auditorium and new flooring in some areas of the Fallin Career & Technology Center, said Project Manager Bob Bernard of Volkert Inc.

“(Paul Jackson & Sons) bid compared with the next lowest bid is over $1 million difference,” Bernard said.

Bernard said the contractor was given 270 days to complete the project once started and the renovation should be finished in February 2022.

District officials said they expect a lot of the work to be done over the summer and they would “shuffle classes around” in the high school as construction continues on into the start of next-school year.

In December, Don Barron Contractor, submitted the lowest bid of $20.7 to build the new Natchez High School on the land known as the “bean field” adjacent to the current Natchez High School campus.

District officials expect the project to be finished in the Spring of 2022.

The project is being financed through a combination of a 3 mil tax levy and Trust Certificates.