In 2020, Kenowa Hills Public Schools approved a $67 million bond project that completes the work being done throughout the district, including the additions and renovations at the Early Childhood Center.

Nothing brings people together like a little friendly competition and O‑A‑K’s Fun Committee made sure of this by hosting a cornhole tournament during the grand opening celebration of our new Operations Center in Dutton.

The Fun Committee, comprised of over a dozen O‑A‑K employees from various departments, meets on a regular basis to develop special events and activities that bring together the O‑A‑K team, such as this cornhole tournament along with O‑A‑K’s annual Whitecaps Outing held every summer with employees and their families.

(GRAND RAPIDS, MI) – Staff, students, parents and community supporters of Kenowa Hills Public Schools gathered Thursday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking of the district’s $55 million bond project, which will fund improvements to six facilities over the course of the next four years. Construction at Kenowa Hills Alpine Elementary was the first to kick off the major bond improvements.

“It’s always great to be a Knight,” said Kenowa Hills Public Schools Superintendent, Gerald Hopkins. “Today is a culmination of an outpouring of support we received from our parents, staff, and school supporters in an effort to provide all students a safe an engaging school experience. There are so many amazing things happening inside the walls of our classrooms and we are excited to begin to make these experiences even more so with building improvements that will be highly visible to our teachers, students and parents.”

Bond improvements will encompass all Kenowa Hills facilities: Kenowa Hills High School, Kenowa Hills Middle School, Alpine Elementary, Central Elementary, Zinser Elementary, and the Kenowa Hills Early Childhood Center.

The timeline of the bond improvements is as follows:

2017

• Alpine Elementary: Secure entry, traffic and parking lot reconfigurations, new gymnasium, building improvements
• Kenowa Hills High School: Secure entry, athletic improvements (baseball and tennis)

2018

• Early Childhood Center: Secure entry
• Central Elementary: Secure entry, traffic and parking lot reconfiguration
• Kenowa Hills Middle School: Secure entry, traffic and parking lot reconfigurations
• Zinser Elementary: Secure entry

2019

• Central Elementary: Building improvements
• Zinser Elementary: Building improvements, traffic and parking lot reconfigurations

2020

• Kenowa Hills High School: Building improvements, traffic and parking lot reconfigurations

The bond to fund these projects was passed by the community in May of 2016. Owen-Ames-Kimball Co. is providing construction management services. GMB Architecture + Engineering is the project architect. For continued updates, visit the district’s blog at http://kenowaconstruction.blogspot.com.

O‑A‑K's safety culture is rooted in putting people first. We conduct a variety of safety training programs for our employees, ranging from mandatory full-day seminars to topic-related workshops with external consultants. We take job site safety seriously and are committed to making sure employees, contractors, and clients get home safely.

Attended by all of our operational staff, this two-hour safety training seminar focused on Lead and Asbestos Awareness. We require all field and project management employees to complete this seminar annually.