TAVARES – Local small-business owners looking to work with Lake County Schools on upcoming projects in construction, maintenance, and related areas are invited to attend a Vendor Networking open house event from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on Thursday, June 27, at Tavares High School.
The district works with large contractors such as Wharton-Smith, Inc.; Welbro Building Corporation; DACG, Inc., and others for new-school construction, maintenance and other projects. Those companies often look for subcontractors, and the district also works with the smaller businesses for smaller projects around the county.
“We would love to see more of those opportunities extended to businesses based here in Lake County,” said Oliver Zachary, procurement supervisor for the school district. “We want to make it easier for them to understand the process.”
The Vendor Networking open house event will take place in the Tavares High School cafeteria. Participants may arrive any time between 9 a.m. and 12 noon to visit with representatives from the large contractors and from the district’s Facilities/Growth Planning, Maintenance, Grounds, Transportation and Warehouse & Procurement Services departments. Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions specific to their areas of interest and receive information about upcoming projects and the bidding process.
“Sometimes, the only barrier to entry is a lack of understanding about our processes and procedures,” Zachary said. “Our goal is to remove that barrier and to let our local small-business owners, including those that are minority- and veteran-owned, know that we welcome the opportunity to partner with them.”
Currently, the district is building a replacement school for Fruitland Park Elementary and is replacing the closed Clermont Elementary School with the new Lincoln Park Education Center, both of which are expected to open this fall. Also, a new K-8 school is being built in Minneola. It will open in August 2025.
Additionally, the Five-Year Capital Plan includes several projects that will add renovated, replacement or new student stations in the north end of the county. They include:
A classroom addition at Villages Elementary of Lady Lake to be constructed over the next year.
A project at Beverly Shores Elementary in the 25-26 school year that will replace older buildings from the 1960s and portables and add some new capacity.
A project at Eustis Elementary School, funded in the next few years. The district is exploring the options for rebuilding and adding capacity to serve additional students there.
Replacing the Eustis High School 9th Grade Center with an addition on the main campus.
A project programmed to convert Leesburg Elementary and Oak Park Middle, which are on adjacent properties, into a single school serving grades K-8.
“We hope to see a lot more local Lake County businesses working with us on those projects,” Zachary said.