The Centralia High School Board is moving forward on a four-room addition to the Annex Building.
Johannes Construction of Centralia was the lowest of the three bidders on the project at $1,171,000.
Superintendent Dr. Chuck Lane says unfortunately the extra rooms will not be available by the start of the next school year as originally hoped.
“It probably won’t get done because of the steel. We’re probably talking mid-first semester, October-November, depending on what happens. We’re prepared to start without it but knowing that we will have it for sure for the second semester. It is just the lead time for the steel, 14 to 16 weeks for steel, which is crazy, but that is where we are at right now.”
The board approved a $160,000 bid from RP Coatings of Metro East to repaint all the first-floor classrooms and the school offices over the summer.
Lane says there is a delay in the installation of the solar array as the Illinois EPA wants more study on the location of a proposed roadway to access the land recently purchased by the high school across Calumet Street.
“We’ll go through every avenue to try and keep it on the westside, that road, because in the future we want to be able to use it if we build a baseball or softball stadium. Having it on the west side would be more advantageous to us. Plus it is right across the street. If we had to go over there for PE or something it is much more convenient. There are a lot of reasons it makes sense for it to be on the west side. I’ll know more next month.”
Lane says the EPA wants to do more study on the west route because they feel land around a ditch it would have to cross might be a wetland. But apparently, the farmer who formerly owned the land had dug the ditch himself.
Lane reported the high school should finish the fiscal year with about a million-dollar surplus. Final updates will be made after the budget is on display for 30 days at the Thursday, June 29th, meeting.
The public was reminded the school will operate on a Monday through Thursday schedule during the summer months.
The board accepted a letter of resignation from part-time custodian Jake Wood. Chester O’laughlin was hired as a full-time custodian, Sophia Beggs as a special education teacher, and Lundyn Waithe as head boys soccer coach. Shannon Cooney was hired as the Little Egypt CEO facilitator for the upcoming school year.
