Photo by Joselyn King Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller provides comment during Monday’s board of education meeting.

WHEELING – Local contractors bidding on projects with Ohio County Schools may be given a slight advantage under a policy change the school district is set to consider next month.

At the board’s last meeting on Feb. 10, members awarded a contract for a new roof at Wheeling Park AAR Roofing of Kernersville, North Carolina. Their proposal of $1,990,000 came in about $234,000 less than those submitted by Ohio Valley contractors.

Board members cited West Virginia law in determining they were required to accept “the lowest and most responsible bid” received. Project contractor McKinley and Associates had determined the North Carolina firm to be “responsible” and credible.

Last week, Nathan Butts, executive director of the local trades group Project BEST, asked to meet with the board about the situation, according to Croft.

“Sometimes not great results on our bids from local contractors can turn into opportunities,” Croft began. “We walked through the steps of what the rules are and what we were mandated to follow, and he (Butts) was very understanding,” Croft continued.

“What came out of that was an interesting opportunity because as we kicked things around … as a board we came up with a policy that provides some preference to local vendors of up to 5%.”

Because the amount is only 5%, it wouldn’t have come into play with the recent set of bids where the winning bid was considerably lower, he said.

“But what came out of that is when there is a concern about how our public dollars are being spent – and we sit down to talk about it – maybe it doesn’t unring the bells of what we have to follow, but it does open up possibilities down the road,” Croft said.

The meeting between Butts and school officials took place Friday, and there wasn’t time to get the proposed policy on the agenda for approval in time for Monday night’s board meeting, he explained.

Croft intends to have the motion on the agenda for the board’s next meeting, set for 6 p.m. on March 10.

The board also approved by consent Monday a motion to bring the WPHS homecoming parade back to downtown Wheeling, as it has been taking place on high school grounds in recent years.

This year’s parade is set for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9 in Wheeling.

The move comes after board member Molly Aderholt questioned a motion at the Feb. 10 meeting to once again hold the parade at the high school. She noted the parade could be watched and enjoyed by more people when it was downtown.

She thanked members for passing the motion Monday night to hold the homecoming parade in Wheeling.

“I thank everyone who looked at that and decided to re-evaluate it and move it back downtown,” Aderholt said. “It was a great decision. I think it will be a very good thing for our parade and our students. It will let people in the community have a better chance of being involved in the parade.”