Just a month after approving a long-standing program offering scholarships to select high school graduates, the OPD5 board reviewed their scholarship policy again at a meeting held on Wednesday, March 19 in Overton. This time, the purpose was to consider a new element being proposed for the program.
In February, the board reviewed and approved a standing policy awarding sixteen $1,000 scholarships per year, eight to MVHS graduates and eight to VVHS graduates. Two OPD5 board members for each school are appointed to review all of the applications and select the final recipients for their school.
The change being proposed last week was to require that all applicants submit a 200-word essay honoring a teacher, mentor, coach, or other person whom they consider most influential in helping with their studies and education. This essay would be submitted along with all the other application materials.
For each of the 16 final scholarship recipients, a copy of their essay, along with a $100 award from the district, would be presented to the person featured in their essay.
The idea for this proposal came from Mesquite board member Mike Young. Interestingly, during his years on the board, Young has always stood in opposition to the OPD5 scholarship program contending that academic scholarships were not within the mission of a utility district. Instead, Young has favored internships and summer work programs, which give young people real work experience while also benefitting the district.
But more recently, Young said he had sought conditions whereby he could more fully support the policy.
“Every year, as you know, I have been sort of against these scholarships,” Young told the board. “But I do understand that there is some benefit in giving back to the community. So I wanted to find something that can really help the community. It occurred to me that teachers and other mentors, who have really driven these kids, aren’t recognized as much as they should be. So I think this might be a way to do that. Under those conditions, I think that even I can support our (scholarship) policy.”
Other board members were fully supportive of the idea. Board member Richard Jones made a motion to approve the policy. The motion was adopted with a unanimous vote.
Since application materials have already gone out for this year’s awards, the board made the proposal fully effective for the 2026 award cycle. However, this year’s scholarship recipients will still be invited to submit an essay so that a person of their choice can be honored, if they wish.