May 18, 1982. Commencement exercises were held at Collins School Monday night with fourteen graduating seniors. Chris Huntrods provided music for the evening. Dr. John Nicholls presented awards to Brenda Morrison and John Lengeling for being the top two scholars in the graduating class. Brenda Morrison received the Clarence and Alvia Maxwell scholarship award for top academic achievement.
Jeff Sesker was recipient of two awards: The Collins Education Association scholarship for the student who will be continuing his education and also the Bar Association Citizenship award. Three students received the English Composition award: Brenda Morrison, Dana Reitan and John Lengeling.
May 19, 1982. Collins High students will take part in football and wrestling programs at Maxwell next year through the expansion of the sharing program with Maxwell High School. The sharing will be possible because of a new ruling from the Department of Public Instruction.
The board would like to begin sharing the athletic program with Maxwell in baseball and softball this summer and is seeking approval from the state agencies. Collins does not have enough interested students to field a team in either sport this summer.
Applications for use of school facilities were considered and a decision was made to give Collins Centennial projects top priorities for the facilities in June.
Collins and Maxwell have different eligibility rules at present and changes will have to be made before the sharing of these activities begins.
Pay raises of 6 1/2% were granted to non-certified personnel in the district.
Since voters in the Collins and Maxwell districts approved the merger of the schools, the sharing programs begun previously will be maintained or increased during the coming year.
June 22, 1982. At a regular meeting, the board voted to allow use of the school buses to transport people at the Centennial at the parking areas to downtown, providing arrangements are made for certified drivers.
Bea Ogburn read a copy of a letter that legislatures Ralph Rosenberg and Charles Bruner had sent to Robert Humphrey at the district office of the Department of Transportation asking that something be done about the wooden bridge that spans the railroad, now abandoned, between Collins and Maxwell. The bridge is a safety concern and now serve no purpose since the tracks have been removed.
Collins has Centennial Celebration in 1982. (More complete summary of the Centennial Activities [School and City] after school year 1982-83.) The Collins 100 year celebration got off the ground on Friday, June 15, at 9:00 a.m. with a flag-raising ceremony on Main Street. Also tubs of flowers decorated the Main Street and the mural painting was completed on the South side of the Collins Hardware Store. The mural was painted by John Helgeland (better known as the mad Norwegian). It shows a farm setting as part of the town's centennial. After the flag raising a kids parade took place with awards given out to the winners. There was also the crowning of King and Queen, Granger and Ila Buck as seniors; Steve Lillard and Alice Coughenour as juniors. The winners of the parade: First place float awarded to the Lions Club. The commercial float first place to Collins Hardware.