Owosso school board gets Venture update, votes on Willman Field sound

Owosso Public Schools has posted the agenda for Wednesday's regular board meeting, and it answers a question left open when the district put out the notice without one: the board will hear an update from Venture Inc., the developer that wants to turn the closed Owosso middle school into apartments.

The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Owosso Performing Arts Center, 765 E. North St. The Venture Inc. update is listed under building reports, not as an action item, so the agenda does not show a vote on the company's purchase agreement with the district.

That agreement is the thread this desk has been pulling since August. The Current reported on Aug. 25 that Venture, which has proposed 53 affordable apartments in the former middle school, had asked for more time — its purchase agreement with the district was set to expire Aug. 1, and no extension vote appeared in the board's July packet. Wednesday's agenda gives the company a spot on the program but no listed action.

Four items sit under "For Action" alongside the consent agenda. The board is set to vote on a sound system at Willman Field, the district's tax levy, a Wilkinson Road property matter and out-of-state travel for Owosso High School FFA students to the national convention. The Current reported on Sept. 8 that the Willman Field sound system came before the committee of the whole on Sept. 9; it now returns as an action item. The tax levy and the Wilkinson Road property both got first looks at the Aug. 26 meeting, when the board also authorized its bond sale.

None of the four items carries a dollar figure or a description on the posted agenda. Each is attached to a numbered board report — 26-32 through 26-35 — whose contents are in the board packet, not in the agenda the district published. On the tax levy, August packets reviewed by The Current showed the district's debt levy holding at 4.7 mills, with bonds from the spring's voter-approved issue to be sold in roughly $12 million rounds under a negotiated sale the district has said must be completed before Dec. 1.

Two more items are informational. A diesel bus is listed as obsolete material "for future action," meaning a vote would come at a later meeting, and the superintendent will present a personnel update. Student representative Mackenzie Hayes is scheduled to give the student report, and the Emerson Mileage Club is the district's Celebrate Kids! feature.

The agenda sets two public participation periods, one before the action items and one near the end of the meeting. The board's committee of the whole discussed changes to its public comment policy on Sept. 9; no policy item appears on Wednesday's agenda.

What happens next: The board meets at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Performing Arts Center. The next committee of the whole meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in Conference Room 112 at the Washington Campus on Alger Street, and the next regular meeting for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at the PAC. The Current has asked the district for the board packet behind Reports 26-32 through 26-35 and will report the sound system cost, the levy rate and the Wilkinson Road terms when they are available.