While public participation concerning the ongoing gender and bathroom policy debate drew most of the crowd at last week’s Waterloo School Board meeting, there were a number of other items on the agenda.

Clarifying a portion of our lengthy article in last week’s paper about the Aug. 21 meeting, Dominic Petruso voiced a complaint against the Waterloo High School Diversity Club for providing access to clothes and chest binders to transgender students.

Petruso described these students as “crossdressers,” further suggesting this sort of community closet – as these projects are commonly known – was “subverting the rights of the parents to make the choice that they decide for their children. That is grooming.”

Petruso cited a previous Republic-Times article written by former reporter Madison Lammert in 2021 titled “Waterloo Diversity Club creates a safe space” as the source for his claims about the community closet’s existence.

It was later learned, however, that this clothes program did not exist and had merely been an idea voiced among students at the time that article was published.

On the agenda following the meeting’s public comment section were a number of items concerning repairs and projects within the school district, several of which were discussed by superintendent Brian Charron during his report.

Charron first spoke about lights at the Waterloo Junior High School tennis court, which he noted were also open to the public when available.

Several of these lights seem to have gone out recently, having not been replaced, according to Charron, since he became superintendent.

Following discussion with the city which recommended replacing these lights with LEDs, the district is currently looking into replacements – though no action was taken on the issue at the meeting.

Charron also spoke about various settling issues at Rogers Elementary, an issue which has come up at previous school board meetings.

While previously discussed settling has largely taken place in the school’s office area, Charron explained it has also been observed in two classrooms at the school, adding there is no immediate danger.

“I want to stress to the public, there is no reason to be alarmed,” Charron said. “We have done sonar testing to make sure there are no voids underneath that building. But nonetheless, there are some slight settling issues that we have to address.”

He went on to say that a maintenance plan to help address the issue would be added to this school year’s budget, which would include pinning of the entire building to observe any additional settling as well as floor jacking the two classrooms in which settling was observed.

As previously reported, the board also discussed and approved the addition of urinal partitions in two boys bathrooms at Waterloo High School – one located near the auditorium and the other by the cafeteria.

Charron explained this was among the cheaper and quicker options the board has entertained to improve privacy in school bathrooms, with other discussed projects being installation of floor-to-ceiling stalls for every toilet and the addition of more single-use restrooms in the schools.

“Some of those projects would take a lot of time,” Charron said. “This is a project that can be done most economically and also most expediently with adding partitions around the urinals in two of the boys’ restrooms. That is not all that we plan on doing, but we’ve discussed starting from this and seeing how satisfied we are.”

As Charron explained, the project would likely be done in October if not sooner, with urinal stalls potentially added to other bathrooms in the school afterward.

During administrator reports, W.J. Zahnow Elementary Principal Justin Imm was asked how the recently renovated parking lot had been working with the start of the school year, and he responded positively.

“It might be a little more traffic now because we’re only using one lane, but starting next week, when it’s finally finished, it should be a lot better,” Imm said.

The board also voted to authorize and award two bid items for Zahnow construction and renovation.

Another substantial item discussed and approved by the board was the appointment of a new school resource officer for the district.

The new officer, Brandon Hartin, replaces Shaun Wiegand.

“Shaun Wiegand has done a wonderful job for us for the past three years,” Charron said. “As his contract expires and Shaun Wiegand took another position in the police department, the police department immediately wanted to find someone else that was qualified to take over this responsibility.”

For more on the district’s new SRO, click here.

The board also addressed monetary items, accepting a donation of $1,359 for the WHS Boys Basketball Activity Account for t-shirts and approving a transfer of $4,000 from the Waterloo Junior High Boys Basketball Activity Fund to the WHS Boys Basketball Activity Fund, with Charron noting this money was originally deposited into the wrong account.