DEARBORN — With many projects on the horizon, the Dearborn Public Schools is seeking vendors to participate in a vendor fair to help get them involved in the operations of working with the district.

Nasser Beydoun, the vice president of multicultural marketing and managing director for the Middle East for Bassett & Bassett, is helping the district get businesses more involved.

“The district is keen on engaging local businesses to do business with the school district,” he said. “I have been a long supporter of the school district and help to work on projects like this.”

Tom Wall, executive director of business services operations for the Dearborn Public Schools, said the goal is to try to get more local companies involved with the district.

Dearborn Public Schools Vendor Fair flyer

“The schools have different laws to follow and we want to have more local businesses involved in our operations,” he said. “We want to provide them with training for following the processes of getting involved in the operations and have more local businesses involved in the bidding process for different projects.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of contractors went out of business or are struggling to find staff, and Wall said it has resulted in low bid turnout.

“This is a way to get local businesses involved in the Dearborn community,” he said. “It also comes with the idea that if they live here and work here, they will have more pride in their work.”

Beydoun said that having local businesses involved with the schools would have an exponential effect.

“I’m hoping the community can gain dollars spent by the district as the more money spent locally, the more benefits to the community,” he said. “This is a great opportunity for small businesses to see and understand what it’s like working with the district.”

The district can only perform large construction projects during the summer as students are not in school at that time.

Mark Andrews, director of business operations for the Dearborn Public Schools, said it’s not just construction that they are looking for. 

“It’s not just about capital improvements,” he said. “We also solicit for cleaning supplies, food supplies for our kitchens, carpet and window cleaning, just to name a few. There are many things other than infrastructure needs.”

The event will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 26 from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Administrative Service Center at 18700 Audette.

Vendors interested in registering for the event can register here.