The Centralia High School Board Thursday night reviewed summer improvements and long-term plans.
Superintendent Chuck Lane says there have been some major changes in Trout Arena:
“One of the best things we’ve been able to do this summer is to make a lot of good improvements to our campus, in particular to our gym. We’ve got new scoreboards up in the gym, we’ve got new bleachers for our students, and we’ve got new mechanical baskets to go up and down which makes it a lot easier for our custodians. There are really nice scoreboards that have been added that’s going to really improved the experience. Painting has been completed all across the campus. We’ve added new carpet for some rooms. It should look really nice for our faculty and staff when they get back in August.”
Lane says the board looked at long-term plans at a recent retreat.
“The focus was talking about facilities and the new property that we bought recently – the 20 acres and what we could do with it. One of our big pushes has been for solar power for our school, so we spent a lot of time talking about if it should be placed on the north or south end of that property. We had groups that came in as potential sellers for the solar panels and where they may want to put the panels. We talked about future facility needs in case we’d ever want to do a new P.E. facility. We also talked about our athletic conference now that Althoff is out of it and what that looks like going forward. So it was just a good couple hours where we got to cover a lot of good topics.”
Registration for the new school year is set for August 10th for seniors, August 11th for juniors and sophomores, August 12th for freshmen, and August 15th for new students. Principal Reid Shipley noted that to avoid congestion, students should stick to the dates assigned to their class. August 8th and 9th were set as dates for pre-registration for those unable to pre-register online at home. August 16 will be the first day for teachers, as an institute day. The first full day of school for students and staff will be August 17.
Other policy updates include, according to Shipley, a return to locker use, “for book bags, purses, cell phones and such.” All of which will be prohibited in the classroom.
The first Monday of each month will be a late-start schedule, with a staff meeting prior to school. He said “this will be a way to get all of our staff with the pertinent information we need to get out there…” Buses will run one hour late on these days.
In other action, the board moved: to accept the irrevocable letter of intent to retire from Kyle Blanchard, math teacher, effective at the end of the 2025-2026 school Year; to accept the irrevocable letter of intent to retire from Rob Mensen, industrial tech teacher, effective at the end of the 2025-2026 school year; and to accept the letter of resignation from Kellie Yandian, part-time aide, effective July 11, 2022.
The board also moved to employ Brad Goewey as assistant principal for the 2022-2023 school year; to employ Chuck Lauder as a physical education teacher for the 2022-2023 school year; to employ Marianne Russell as a guidance counselor for the 2022-2023 school year; to employ Nick Jacobs as a math teacher for the 2022-2023 school year; to employ Isaac Wright as an Annex special education teacher for the 2022-2023 school year; and to employ Will Heneger as an Annex security guard for the 2022-2023 school year.
