Santa Susana High School last week reached another milestone on its journey to build a performing arts center.

The Simi Valley Unified School District board of education unanimously awarded the low bid for the 420seat, 12,730square-foot auditorium to McGillivray Construction Inc. for $10.25 million.

"I'm just going to say it's a long time coming," board member Debbie Sandland said.

Santa Susana students, teachers and parents in the audience cheered when the vote passed.

The groundbreaking will likely be in another month, once the contractor processes the notice to proceed.

The project was initially approved by the board in March. During the first bid opening on June 13, the district received only two bids on the project, with a low offer of $11.92 million.

Simi Valley Unified rejected it because it was more than $1.1 million over budget.

After making minor changes on the project—mostly to the parking lot, none on the building itself—the second bid process began Sept. 25. This time, five contractors placed bids on the theater.

"Rebidding it gave everybody a second chance to look at plans and specs again," said Pedro Avila, director of facilities and planning. "The rebid was successful. . . . Essentially, it paid off."

The winning bid is lower than anticipated; the architect estimated the theater would cost $10.82 million.

"I'm just very excited that we've hired a contractor," said Sue Martinez, president of the Performing Arts Center Team. PACT will host a fundraising dinner show, "A Night Under the Stars," at 5 p.m. Sat., Oct. 18 at the high school.

The performing arts center will be paid for primarily by the Measure C4 bond and almost $3 million in developer fees.