URBANA — The Urbana school district has asked an engineer to check for possible asbestos content in material covering the ceiling above the auditorium stage at Urbana High School.

Ota Dossett, director of facilities for the district, said a crew working on the renovation of the auditorium last week discovered that material glued to the plaster ceiling above the stage may be made of transite, which contains asbestos.

The material was installed in the 1970s as a fire retardant.

Dossett said the ceiling needs to be removed anyway as part of the $4.6 million renovation project. But if the material contains asbestos, a company certified by the Illinois Department of Public Health has to remove it.

The school district's asbestos engineer, Ideal Environmental Engineering of Bloomington, has taken a sample of the material to a laboratory to be tested and is in the process of submitting an asbestos removal plan to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The department would have to approve the plan.

The Urbana school board, in turn, has called for a special meeting at 12:45 p.m. Thursday at the Jean F. Burkholder Administrative Service Center, 205 N. Race St., U., to give approval to waive the bidding process to hire a certified asbestos removal contractor.

Dossett said the discovery won't affect the completion of the project. The auditorium is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2012.