The Centralia Grade School Board has moved their 8th grade graduation to Centralia High School.
Superintendent Craig Clark says use of the high school gym will give them more room to space out and allow for each student to receive four tickets.
He reports in addition to the presentation of diplomas, there will be a speaker from the graduating class and recognition of some of the award winners and retirees.
“Unlike a normal year when we might have the chorus and band play and maybe more tickets, those are the things we won’t have that we normally do.”
Graduation is set for Thursday night, May 27th, beginning at six pm.
Clark reported 160 students are eligible for the remedial summer school to try and help them close the learning gap left due to remote learning and COVID-19. He’s uncertain at this point how many will actually participate.
“We still have those students who are remote or who have not consistently checked in that we are constantly working to see if they are ok. Using our home to school resource officers and even some of our principals and staff have been doing home visits. They have invested time to make sure those kids are ok. But it’s also sad for those kids because they are falling behind and hard for us to track.”
Centralia Police Chief Greg Dodson has asked the city council to pass a truancy ordinance that would give them another tool to help get truant kids back in school. It failed for lack of a second at Monday’s City Council meeting, but is expected to be back on the next agenda after the new council members are made more familiar with its purpose.
In personnel news:
- The board hired Debbie Redfeairn as District Treasurer, Abbey Holtkamp as Schiller Kindergarten Teacher, and Patty Donoho as Jordan School secretary.
- The board accepted the resignations of Stephanie Heinrich as Individual Paraprofessional at Schiller School, Brooklyn Simonton as Special Education Teacher at Central School, Erica Trone as Jordan School Secretary, Shannon Atchison as bus driver and Martha Gray as cook at Jordan School.
