Centralia High School will start school on August 17 and end on May 27 for the 2021-22 school year, according to a schedule approved last night at the monthly meeting of the CHS Board of Education. Superintendent Chuck Lane said he hopes to have a fairly normal school year.
“At this point in time we are planning on having a full-blown 5 days a week all kids back in school hopefully we’ll be able to do that of course we haven’t been told that for sure and if the state comes back and if things start to go south and we had to offer more and we have to do that but it’s our preference for kids to be in school full time.”
Graduation was set for Sunday, May 23 at 2 p.m., but no decision has yet been made as to whether it will be inside or outside. Attendance for graduation is expected to be about 600 but may change as the pandemic restrictions change.
Student body president Jazmyne Myers reported 54 pints of blood donated at the annual Spring blood drive. Student Council elections are set for April 20 and 21, with petitions will be out from April 12 through April 14.
According to Principal Reid Shipley and Principal Travis Cameron, the main campus has had only one recent COVID-19 test, and the Annex has had none.
Upcoming event at CHS include:
Kaskaskia College registration for seniors, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., April 9, in the cafeteria; SAT Testing will on April 13, with juniors, sophomores, and freshmen in attendance. Senior will not attend that day; Prom is set for April 30 in the gym, and will only be open to CHS juniors and seniors, Due to COVID-19 restrictions no non-student guests or freshmen/sophomores will be allowed to attend.
May Fete is set for three public performances and one student-staff-only performance, due to COVID-19 occupancy limits, with the school performance set for May 11 and the public event set for one on May 12 and two on May 14, with May 15 as a back-up date. Details will be forthcoming at a later date.
Vocational department chair Rob Menson gave a rundown of department Activities; CHS graduate Blake Petrea, ’17, a technician at Reichmann Brothers, discussed the benefits the program has given him in his career, speaking very favorably of the program.
Student Travelers Club advisors Kalani Aydt and John Fischer discussed the upcoming club trip, set for late June to early July this summer, to Ireland and London.
In other action the board moved to employ: Melissa Dreas as English teacher for the 2021- 2022 school year; Caleb Shipley as Special Education teacher for the 2021-2022 school year; Hannah Witter as assistant girls’ basketball coach and assistant girls’ softball coach for the 2020-2021 school year; and Tristan Penrod as head wrestling coach for the 2020-2021 school year.
