April 17, 2013
Ottawa Area Schools Announce Region Wide Partnership
Highlighting The Importance of High Quality Schools
April 17, 2013 - An innovative new education collaborative - spearheaded by the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District - is making its debut in west Michigan, as the "Doing More. Together." partnership engages businesses, community groups, and a host of education organizations throughout 2013 and beyond.
<h2>Ottawa Area Schools Announce Region Wide Partnership Highlighting The Importance of High Quality Schools</h2><h3>"Doing More. Together." a collaborative effort featuring public, private, charter, and faith based schools, partnerships with regional businesses</h3><h4>April 17, 2013 - An innovative new education collaborative - spearheaded by the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District - is making its debut in west Michigan, as the "Doing More. Together." partnership engages businesses, community groups, and a host of education organizations throughout 2013 and beyond.</h4><p>Companies and organizations across the region will actively participate in the partnership by showcasing the high quality education offerings in local communities throughout the Ottawa region and partnering together as an integral part of the collaborative. The partnership's website - www.doingmoretogether.org - already features a wide array of success stories from participating schools and will continue to be updated regularly.</p><p>"What is unique about "Doing More. Together." is the partnership includes faith-based schools, public and private schools, and public school academies - all of whom are united in the belief that high quality education is what makes good communities great," Karen McPhee, superintendent of the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District said.</p><p>"We believe that learning is life long, and through the Doing More. Together. partnership we will continue to look for ways to enhance education for our students, in our schools and in our communities," McPhee said. "We want to use this partnership to broadly raise community awareness that our work in educating students means a higher quality of life for our entire region."</p><p>"The partnership will engage individuals, families, businesses and communities to demonstrate what Ottawa area schools are doing, and what they plan to do to prepare students for their future," said Dave Tebo, Superintendent of Hamilton Community Schools.</p><p>"By emphasizing the word 'more' in our partnership theme, we illustrate the mission of our schools to go above and beyond the basic requirements of the education process," Tebo said. "Our partners aren't comfortable with just doing what is required. Each day, teachers across our region - in all schools - do more to ensure that our children are prepared to become responsible citizens of the 21st century."</p><p>"During the next year, Ottawa area schools will demonstrate reasons that education should be valued. Schools will also show how students, community members of all ages and businesses benefit from a strong school system in the marketplace and community. The partnership also will be prominently featured on the WOOD-TV media platform over the course of 2013," McPhee said.</p><p>"We believe strongly that by working together collaboratively, we will achieve greater success as a region," Glenn Vos, Holland Christian Schools Superintendent said. "We believe this one-of-a-kind partnership will galvanize our communities and ensure that our education offerings in the region are valued and treasured by all."</p><p>Doing More. Together. already has several business based partners for its effort, with many more on the horizon, McPhee said.</p><p>"These three inaugural partners, Maranda Where You Live - WOTV-TV 4 Women, Holland Litho Printing Service, and Junebug Photography, are the first of many to support our collective work, and they represent a fantastic start for our efforts," she said. "Over the course of the next year, we plan to add dozens of regional business representatives to this stellar effort."</p><p>Holland Litho Printing Service, a leading regional provider of print material, is one of the companies partnered with Doing More. Together. The full service facility offers color scanning, color correcting, image retouching, electronic prepress, digital printing, large format prints and full color offset printing. Holland Litho also has bindery, direct mail, web to print, variable data personalization and fulfillment services.</p><p>Junebug Photography, a professional photography studio in Holland covering all of West Michigan, also joined the Doing More. Together. partnership. The photography studio specializes in weddings, families, high school seniors and commercial.</p><p>The partnership also has entered into an agreement with WOOD-TV to feature Doing More. Together. educational success stories from education members across their platform of media channels on television, radio and the internet.</p>
The Saline Chapter of Business Professionals of America competed at the regional competition Friday, January 5th, at Henry Ford Community College. All chapter participants did a wonderful job representing Saline High School and several members will compete at the state competition in March held at the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 
