"Let there be light," is most likely what administration and staff at the Southland School District were thinking when things finally started coming together regarding the electrical portion of the work needing to be done at the school's new building, which was blueprinted to provide eight additional elementary classrooms.

According to Superintendent of Schools Raymond Lasley, on three different occasions the electricians the school hired for the project showed up on campus to meet with representatives from but no one ever showed.

Lasley said that several appointments were made with the company, which is one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric and gas utilities serving 2.4 million electric and nearly one million natural gas customers throughout its 64,000-square-mile area of Illinois and Missouri.

The only problem was that AmerenUE did not keep true to their commitment to the district, leaving the electricians Lasley arranged to be present to do nothing but leave and wait for the next appointment.

Recently, AmerenUE representatives did make it to the building site which enabled the project to move forward.

The next phase will involve interior work to the structure.

"We're making progress," Lasley said during a board of education meeting on Thursday.

In addition to the review of the school's construction project, the board also reviewed and approved the proposed school calendar for the 2008-2009 academic year.

Linda Ross, chairman for the district's Career Ladder program spoke to members of the board about the program.

Fifteen teachers within the district participated in the program this year and have completed their plans which included more than 903 hours spent outside of normal school time toward improving student education, according to Ross.

Ross pointed out that many of those hours were earned through before and after school tutoring, summer school, professional development training, summer reading programs, and literacy education.

In his superintendent's report, Lasley told the board that attendance at Southland is on the rise.

"Our attendance is still going up," Lasley said. "People are coming out of the woodwork to enroll their children in Southland School."

According to the administrator, new students have been enrolling in the district at increased levels, with some students even migrating to the area from far-away states.

In new business, Don Collins was re-hired as the school's auditor. Collins represents a full service accounting firm in Kennett known as Robertson, Privett, Scherer, and Collins.

The firm has historically contracted with many of the area schools including Senath-Hornersville and Kennett Public Schools to provide auditing services.

The were only two actions in executive session. One was to accept the resignation of Sue Scott who was a teacher assistant in a special education classroom.

The other action was to hire the staff for summer school.