Centralia R-VI School Board members took no action Monday night on a proposal to enter into a joint agreement with Hubbell/Chance on a vocational welding program at the local high school. Superintendent Darin Ford told the board that the school had not heard back from Hubbell with regard to the latest counterproposal.

Ford said they hope to be able to take action on the matter in August and will schedule the class for the fall semester. Ford said the district has received a grant to pay for 75 percent of structural changes to school.

The program would have would have five units and they are expecting three or four in the first year with the ability to expand to 15-20 students later. A current staff member would teach the class. Hubbell would send workers to the facility at night for periodic training sessions.

The district heard from accountant Vanessa Ridgel who said the final numbers show the district finished the year $404,599.80 in the red and saw a reserve balance of just over 10 percent.

Later in the meeting when asked during the public comment portion of the meeting how the district could keep from running deficit budgets, board member Tim Beard said "There is an election in April and I will leave it at that. People need to wake up and understand who they are voting for and if they believe in the financial integrity of this district."

Troy Balthazor with the Great Plains Americans With Disabilities Act Center spoke to the crowd and said his organization would like to offer help the district in working with those with disabilities. "He said he would like to move Centralia forward as best as possible to make the community as accessible as can be and help in any way we can."

Curriculum director Deanna Richman spoke about the school’s CSIP (Comprehensive School Improvement) plan. Numbers for 2010 were incomplete and should be available in late August. She indicated the district needs to look at some possible changes to the way it is evaluating improvement and possibly come up with additional measures.

In the public comments portion of the meeting brothers Art and Dan Dollens both spoke with respect to OCR (Office of Civil Rights) complaints they have filed in past years. Art Dollens received correspondence within the past two weeks indicating the district needed to provide more information regarding one of his complaints about Title IX (equal gender representation in sports).

The meeting took a strange turn as board president Justin Romine (later joined by attorney Joseph Wientge) attempted to question that agenda item the Dollens were addressing. Board policy requires public comment be limited to agenda items. Dan Dollens told Romine he was speaking about the school lunch program. "If you are found in violation of these complaints, then the funding for lunches could be stripped."

Member Greg Martin said the matter should be discussed in public, but members disagreed saying it was a legal matter.

The Guard’s Jeff Grimes spoke saying "As the press I am not taking sides on the merit of this, but the Sunshine Law encourages all discussions to be in the open."

Wientge met with the board in closed session. No public comment was held.

Ford mentioned that a cut policy has been reinstituted for middle school basketball and volleyball as the school will be using one less coach in each sport in the coming year. Freshman basketball will play an abbreviated schedule.