A classroom building project for Von Renner Elementary School will face a setback after Newman-Crows Landing Unified District staff found out that five of the seven bidders used a nonapproved subcontractor, resulting in the Board of Education voting 5-0 to reject all the bids.

The specific project focuses on the demolition of nine classroom buildings and transforming it to portable classrooms. It's a part of a series of renovations at the site, including replacing the asphalt, relocation of the climbing wall and the removal of a warehouse space. The changes are expected to cost more than $10 million.

NCLUSD Superintendent Justin Pruett said the contractors used a subcontractor that didn’t meet the district’s timeline for approval. He added that district staff was told by their architect to reject the bids and start over. This would allow the rejected subcontractors to be approved ahead of the next bidding process.

The initial bidding happened on Aug. 26 with an average bid of $6.2 million. The lowest bid was $5.9 million from Lodi-based Diede Construction, Inc. and the highest was $6.6 million from Creekside Commercial.

A public bidding will happen in October and it will then be presented as an agenda item to approve to the Board of Education in a Nov. 9 meeting.

While the district’s oldest elementary campus has faced delays when it comes to renovations, Pruett said the multiple phase will take time to complete and he wants to make sure it’s something for the community to be satisfied with.

“We know this project has been delayed, and part of it is due to Von Renner being an older campus,” Pruett said. “It is something that takes time to look at and make sure we have a product in the end that our community can be very proud of and very satisfied with.”