OHS PRINCIPAL JEFF PHILLIPS introduced the new foreign exchange students during the Monday evening school board meeting. There are actually four exchange students, though only three are shown. The students include Rafael Franco of Brazil, Anny Vitoria Dutra Dos Anjos of Brazil, Gloria Pere-Pardo Gonzalez of Spain and Kiho Sekine of Japan. Franco was playing in a soccer game at the time. (Independent Photo/Karen Mead-Elford)
by Karen Mead-Elford, co-editor
Discussion during the school board meeting in the Owosso High School media room on Monday, Sept. 24 included awarding a number of contracts for elementary school bond work. The recommendation put forth during the meeting was to authorize the superintendent to sign contracts to “approve any contingencies of 6.5 percent and general condition work up to two percent of the overall contract work not to exceed $3,445,802.”
As many recall, the school bond was passed in November 2017 and since that time, staff, community members and organizers have been incredibly active in moving forward into the design and construction process. Bids related to the three elementary school additions were received on Tuesday, Sept. 11.
Clark’s Construction, acting as the school district’s construction manager, thoroughly reviewed every bid, conducted related interviews and made recommendations based on the collected data. The goal was to make every dollar count toward bringing the Owosso Public School District, in this case the elementary schools, into a new educational era with numerous and diverse opportunities offered to every student.
The school board presented summaries of every bid in a detailed report. Contractors awarded included J. Perez Construction of Flint, Moore Trosper Construction Company of Holt, Xtreme Maxon Contractors, LLC of Laingsburg, Structural Steels, Inc. of Sparta, Dickerson Mechanical of Davison, Great Lakes Power & Lighting, Inc. of Casco and Champagne & Marc Excavating, Inc. of Saginaw. The school board followed state law regarding the elementary bond work bid process and accepted all low bidders. Much of the legal language associated with the bid process is outlined in Act 451 of 1976 and is available by searching www.legislature.mi.gov.
Other topics presented included the approval of sending students to the out-of-state VE Southern Regional Trade Show (Nov. 18-21) and VE Great Lakes Trade Show (Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2019), sending a student to the 2018 Global Youth Institute in Iowa (Oct. 17-20), approving the Head Start Purchase of Service Agreement between Capital Area Community Services (CACS) and OPS, and also the approval of sending students to see Hamilton in Chicago on Monday, Oct. 17 contingent upon selling all 50 bus seats/tickets for the event.
The CACS agreement with OPS recognizes a continuation of services to provide preschool at the Bentley Bright Beginnings campus for up to twelve Head Start students.
The 2018 Global Youth Institute educational trip actually recognizes the achievement of one of nine students who attended the Michigan Youth Institute in May after they had written papers for the OHS agricultural science class and submitted them to the World Food Prize Global challenge. This student was invited to continue to the Iowa event, representing Owosso. There were only three schools from Michigan invited to attend.
