MUSKEGON, Mich. — Muskegon Public School Superintendent Matthew Cortez and members of the Big Red school board are looking for local contractors to provide some of the work needed to build a new middle school starting in the first quarter of 2022.
The Charles Hackley Middle School will cost around $30 million and will be paid for by a bond district voters passed in 2020.
The new school is still being designed, but district leaders say it will be built on land donated to the school district by Mercy Health.
The site is currently occupied by the closed Hackley Hospital. In preparation for the major construction project, the district is working to find local contractors to help build the new school.
A "contractors meet and greet" will be held Thursday, June 24, at 2 p.m. at the MPS District Services Building at 1800 E. Laketon Ave.
This event is for local contractors, larger contractors, insurance companies, bankers, lawyers and anyone else that could have interest or wants to be informed about the bond projects.
"The middle school is probably going to be a large contractor. But they come through and do sub-contracts. We want to get our local contractors both informed on what a bidding procedure is and how it works through the public schools because it's different," said Cortez. "The other thing we want to do is get them networked with larger contractors so they can be used as sub-contractors."
District leaders are especially interested in connecting with minority, small business, veteran and female owned businesses in Muskegon and Muskegon County. There's no charge to attend the contractors meet and greet and free food will be provided by the district.
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