The Hills-Beaver Creek School Board has announced a special meeting to accept a resignation and to approve a contract for an interim superintendent.

The meeting, which is open to the public, will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, in the high school boardroom.

Questions have been swirling around the H-BC School District since the School Board went in to closed session at its Jan. 23 meeting.

The board cited Minnesota Statute 13D.05 Subdivision 3B as its legal reason for closing the meeting.

That statute gives public bodies legal permission to close meetings under attorney-client privilege for possible legal action against an employee.

While no reasons have been offered officially for that closed meeting or for Thursday’s special meeting, previous board discussions provide some background.

At the Jan. 9 board meeting, for example, Superintendent David Deragisch told board members that he had made some “goofs” with the money collected from the $9.9 million construction bond used to build the district’s new high school.

He said this plays into the district being short funds to pay off the construction contractor.

Deragisch said, "When the smoke clears, we are about $100,000 short."

Thursday’s meeting may offer more specifics as to whether or not these were among reasons for the resignation.

Deragisch has served the district as superintendent since 2002. He grew up in the Hills area and graduated from H-BC in 1979.

He taught in Hills from 1986 to 1991. He left Hills to become middle school principal in the Jackson district, and in 1993 he became middle school principal in Luverne where he served until the end of 2001.