BUFFALO TWP — The Freeport School Board Wednesday awarded a $789,500 contract to Rush Architectural Metal Erectors to replace a chunk of the high school roof.

R.A.M.E, of Washington, Pa., submitted the lowest of five bids to do the work. The other bids all exceeded $1 million.

The board rejected the company’s $70,390 bid to make fixes to other parts of the high school roof and the roofs of the Buffalo and South Buffalo elementary schools.

Dan Lucovich, school board president, said in an interview the district will not pay that amount for those repairs.

“They were all too high,” he said about all five companies’ alternate bids.

Lucovich said the district will tackle those repairs separately.

The sections of the high school roof to be replaced include areas over the gymnasium, auditorium and cafeteria.

The money will come from the district’s capital reserves budget, which has $4 million.

Work is expected to be completed before the fall classes begin.

The high school was built in the early 1960s, with the most recent roof replacement done nearly four decades ago.