Triad Engineering was the only firm to express interest in negotiating a contract with the school district for the work, Arvon said. If the fees for service proposed is not acceptable, the school board was assured they could re-advertise the work.
The county's fourth high school is on track to open in August 2013, Arvon said in an interview this week.
The new primary school already under construction at the Spring Mills campus is about 40 percent complete, Arvon said.
Last month, Minghini's General Contractors Inc. in Martinsburg was awarded a $3.8 million general contracting bid to build two, 20-classroom additions at Musselman High School and Martinsburg North Middle School.
Separate packages awarded for utility and furnishing the additions increased the school district's total outlay for the two projects to $7,396,823.50, which Arvon said was "excellent."
Both projects are to be complete by August 2011, Arvon said.
New board member Darin L. Gilpin said he was excited to be sworn in on Thursday and was looking forward to his first term on the board.
"A lot of good things are happening, building the new schools and things are going in the right direction," Gilpin said. "Hopefully (we will) try to continue in that direction."
J. Ronald "Ron" Gray, who was elected in May to finish the unexpired four-year term of William "Bill" Norris, said serving on the board is something he has wanted to do since retiring from teaching.
"It is a privilege and honor to be able to give back to the community, to the schools, to the kids," Gray said.
Incumbent board members Richard A. "Rick" Pill and Todd M. Beck, who easily won re-election in May, began their third and fifth, four-year terms respectively on Thursday.
William F. Queen was elected by fellow board members to serve as board president, a post he held last year.
Pill was elected vice-president, a post he has held since Norris resigned earlier this year to run for the new five-member Berkeley County Council, which replaces the three-member County Commission.
