The Centralia High School Board has set this year’s graduation. It will be on Sunday, May 21st, at two pm.
Superintendent Dr. Chuck Lane updated the board on a number of other issues, including the statewide teachers shortage.
“One of the good things about the governor’s proposal for the budget that didn’t get a whole lot of talk is the $70 million earmarked for teacher shortage issues. We don’t have a lot of details yet, but we’re hopeful that will lead to programs that will help school districts, especially in Southern Illinois, attract and retain teachers. If we can get some funding or some assistance to help people go back to school to become teachers will help everybody – as I said all along, we have a supply problem on the teaching side, so that would help everybody.”
Lane said work on installing the solar systems approved at the last board meeting is now underway.
“We actually had 4 days this month where the contractors and the owner of the solar equipment were here on site, looking around walking the different sites. If you look around our school you’ll see a bunch of different flags on the ground marking different areas like water, sewer, and electricity as they try to get things set up for the start of construction.“
He added that planning for the Annex expansion is also continuing:
“As we discussed last month, we are moving forward with the expansion of the Annex: four classrooms will be directly east of where the building is now. We’re anticipating two of those to be rented out by KSED (Kaskaskia Special Education District) for their programs and then two of them, we would use. So just four standard classrooms, no additional plumbing or anything. So pretty straightforward. We’re hoping to have maybe some of the documents or at least pencil drawings next month. “
Student Council President John Veller, a junior, told the board the annual Spring blood drive is set for March 2; student council elections April 25; and Teacher Appreciation Day May 2.
Other events include March 10 as the end of the third quarter; March 13 for Honors Night; March 14 for the annual Sound Spectacular concert; and the spring musical March 16-19.
In other action, the board moved to employ Candice Groff, attendance office secretary, effective February 21, 2023; and Rebecca Becker as science department coordinator and Mallory Kauling as special education coordinator for the 2023-2024 school year.
