The Overton Power District No. 5 (OPD5) board of directors voted to expand the district’s long-standing high school scholarship program. In a meeting held on Wednesday, January 21, the board increased the total amount to be awarded from the previous sum of $16,000 to $20,000 this year. Under this proposal, the district would give 20 scholarships, awarding 10 students from each of the two local high schools. The amount of the awards was retained at $1,000 each.

This agenda item comes before the board for approval every January. In past years, the board had opted to reduce the amount of scholarships slightly, in order to use the funds to expand the OPD5 internship and summer work programs.

But at last week’s meeting, Mesquite board member Mike Young suggested that perhaps a little more should be invested back into the OPD5 scholarship program. Young’s first thought was to increase the amount of each scholarship award.

“At one time, maybe 10 years ago, this amount was substantial,” Young said of the $1,000 awards. “But it has really shrunken in value. And maybe we ought to consider revising the amount periodically.”

Bunkerville board member Bob Bunker agreed with the idea of increasing the program. But he argued that $1,000 was still a good scholarship. As a member of the selection committee that chooses Virgin Valley High School students to receive the scholarship, Bunker said that he preferred using any additional money to extend the program to more students.

“I really think that if we are going to raise the amount, I would not raise how much each student got, but instead I would offer the same scholarship to two more kids in each school,” Bunker said. “Because there are just a lot of good kids!”

Overton board member Richard Jones, who has served on the OPD5 selection committee for MVHS, agreed with this. “I have no problem with that idea,” he said of Bunker’s proposal. “Because there are so many kids who are equally deserving, and it is just a difficult decision. And what do you do?”

Bunker made a motion to increase the number of scholarships to 10 per school, leaving the amount of each award at $1,000. The motion was adopted with a unanimous vote.