The Waterloo School Board opened the year with a range of discussion and action items including replacement of a cooling tower for the high school, a bid for bleachers at the junior high and addressing mold at Gardner Elementary over winter break.

The mold was one of the more striking items on the agenda, with board president Lori Dillenberger providing a summary of the situation.

With a district contractor painting in Gardner’s gym, it was found there was a need for mold remediation and some additional painting.

The actual action item concerned approval of an emergency exception to school code for bidding requirements as, given the need to handle the matter before the school reopened for the spring semester, the district did not go through the typically required public bidding process.

This exception was approved along with payment for an invoice to Midwest Service Group for $16,000.

The awarding of a bid for the junior high bleacher replacement to Middendorf & Reuss Construction was the notably larger spending item of the evening, with $287,000 for the base bid plus alternate bids for player seats and decking respectively costing $12,000 and $3,000 for a total of $302,000.

Another particularly notable item was approval of a graduation date for this school year, the day once again falling on the Sunday between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, May 18 at 1 p.m.

Two other action items addressed by the board concerned the Waterloo High School course selection guide.

Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron explained that the first item was for the current school year, formalizing in the school handbook that several courses are eligible for dual credit with Southwestern Illinois College.

The second item, as Charron said, made the same change for the 2025-26 school year, further adding four new course offerings.

WHS Principal Tim McDermott chimed in to explain some of these courses have been approved in previous years.

The courses in question include housing and interior design – by far the most popular among students, per McDermott – journalism one and two, natural resources and wildlife management and an introduction to technical math – a partnership  course with SWIC designed for those students planning to pursue technical school or trade certification.

It was also noted in an exchange between McDermott and board vice president Neil Giffhorn that the journalism courses are expected to support an online student paper of some kind.

The board also approved acceptance of a donation for $1,000 for the WHS athletic director fund activity account. District athletic director Tim Gould explained that this donation came about through a series of games between Waterloo and Mascoutah in the fall, which Waterloo hosted.

Per Gould, the series is sponsored by the National Guard, which presents academic scholarships to the top athlete from each team, a trophy to the winning team and a donation to the hosting school.

Still another item approved by the board was the designation of a warming station as surplus property. Charron explained that, with some frustration over the years from district staff trying to keep it working, the Winston CVAP holding cabinet is currently in storage and no longer of use to the district which is looking to give it to the highest bidder.

While it did not receive attention via an action item, Charron – speaking on the scarce recent activity of district special committees – discussed how a cooling tower at the high school is now looking to be replaced entirely as opposed to simply conducting maintenance as has been discussed by the board previously.

“With the work anticipated for the cooling tower that initially was going to be fixing the structure that’s underneath it and ordering a coil to replace it, the cost of that coil came back so much higher than we thought it was going to be that it’s within the range of just replacing that cooling tower. So that job is going to be bid out for cooling tower replacement,” Charron said. “We felt that before we spent $175,000 to repair one part of the 16-year-old tower that we should spend $260,000 and just replace the entire tower.”

Charron further noted the tower will feature a redundancy via two coils to provide cooling for the school. Only one coil could be active on days where the whole system isn’t necessary, and should one coil break, the school would still have access to some cooling with the remaining coil.

He added the project could happen sometime over the summer.

On district projects, Charron also pointed to Zahnow Elementary Principal Justin Imm regarding the recently completed renovations at that school.

Imm said Zahnow will have an open house to show off these renovations Feb. 1. Staff and district employees can stop by from 8-9 a.m., and folks from the community can visit from 9-11 a.m. A ribbon cutting will take place around 8 a.m.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Charron announced a tentative calendar for the upcoming school year, voicing his interest in feedback from district staff.

“I’m predicting this might be the first in 11 years as superintendent that I put out a calendar that doesn’t get a lot of negative feedback,” Charron said. “Trust me, there will be some, but that’s OK.”

This month’s meeting once again featured a presentation from district staff, with Lyndsay Ahrens speaking on behalf of the district’s fourth grade educators following a video showing students engaging in day-to-day activities.

Ahrens spoke to the grade’s “dynamic and engaging” learning environment, also highlighting recent activities like learning about holiday traditions from around the world and visiting Busch Stadium to participate in the Cardinals Academic Program.

She also described how students feel welcome in their classroom from the moment they walk in the door, with some engaging in quiet reading and others conducting a morning meeting where they share thoughts and connect with their classmates.

“As the students walk into their classrooms in the morning, they are greeted not just with a smile but with a sense of belonging,” Ahrens said. “This is a simple but powerful way to make every student feel seen and heard right from the start.”

After speaking on some of the major parts of the grade’s curriculum, Ahrens offered praise to her colleagues for their work, particularly the paraprofessionals that contribute to the education environment each day.

“These flexible, hardworking and amazing individuals are the backbone of our classrooms,” Ahrens said. “They step into any situation with grace, whether they’re assisting a teacher during a lesson, providing one-on-one support to a student or even helping manage transitions throughout the day. Paraprofessionals wear so many hats, and they do it with a positive attitude and an unwavering commitment to our children.”