Cahokia Conference conversation dominated most of Monday’s Waterloo School Board meeting, with the board ultimately moving to join as the Mississippi Valley Conference is set to disband.

Waterloo School District Athletic Director Tim Gould led the discussion with a PowerPoint presentation, offering some background and an overview on the conference situation.

Gould first noted that Waterloo is committed to the MVC through next school year, though there have been rumblings about a conference realignment for some time given anticipated enrollment growth at the conference’s largest schools – Mascoutah and Triad – and an apparent lack of competitive balance identified among the conference’s smallest schools – Jerseyville and Civic Memorial.

In the middle of the MVC schools in terms of enrollment are Waterloo and Highland.

Talks about a substantial conference merger took place in early February, with schools in the region discussing a Southwestern Conference expansion consisting of members of the MVC and the South 7 Conference, which includes Marion, Carbondale, Mt. Vernon, Centralia and Cahokia. This expansion would have also included Granite City.

Soonafter, Mascoutah, Triad and Granite City committed to the SWC, with the Cahokia Conference subsequently sending invitations to Civic Memorial and Jerseyville.

Waterloo thus faced a decision between the SWC and Cahokia Conference as the South 7 invited the remaining MVC schools to join, and an opening was created in the Cahokia Conference as Salem committed to the River to River Conference.

With an apparently strong leaning among Waterloo coaches toward the Cahokia Conference, the makeup of the conference in Fall 2026 will be Columbia, Freeburg, Breese Central, Waterloo, Jerseyville and Civic Memorial in football, with East Alton-Wood River and Roxana also joining the conference for that sport.

Gould spoke to some of the pros and cons of joining the Cahokia Conference, noting how the conference would establish schedule clarity – particularly for football – and keep travel times down for students and coaches. He also spoke to how the conference schools, with fairly similar enrollments, would keep things decently competitive across all sports.

“It would be competitive across the board in different sports,” Gould said. “Yes, we would be playing against some teams that are smaller as far as enrollment, but the competition level varies sport by sport… It’s not as if there would be some type of easy cakewalk for Waterloo High School joining the Cahokia Conference.”

In terms of disadvantages, Gould pointed chiefly to how not all schools in the Cahokia Conference would have the same athletic offerings – specifically regarding wrestling and tennis – though he added this would not be a problem when it comes to filling schedules and conference tournaments would still take place as Jerseyville and Civic Memorial match Waterloo in sports offerings.

Regarding the South 7 Conference, Gould mainly noted the disparity in travel times between this conference and the Cahokia Conference, with Marion, Carbondale and Mt. Vernon being particularly lengthy trips for student-athletes.

On this matter, WHS assistant football coach Matt Lucash chimed in later in the discussion, speaking to the impact lengthy trips can have as coaches are kept away from their families in the evenings and students miss school as they sleep in the morning after.

Gould also spoke about the possibility of Waterloo becoming independent in its athletics – though he stressed how much of a “nightmare” this would be when it comes to scheduling an athletic season.

The most vocal board member during this discussion was John Caupert, who chiefly bemoaned the fact the MVC was disbanding at all.

Caupert voiced frustration with the apparent lack of drive on the part of the MVC to stay together.

“Look at what we have. Look at our sports complex,” Caupert said. “I believe firmly, I believe adamantly, that Waterloo should be a flagship in a conference, not one that says ‘Thanks for the invitation, let’s go…’ This just bothers me to the core. We weren’t there. We don’t know what went on behind the walls in the meetings at all, but my question is, where was the fight for the Mississippi Valley Conference? I was led on one hand to believe ‘Well, it was gonna dissolve anyway, so everybody has to go somewhere.’ No it wasn’t! Mascoutah and Triad elected to go somewhere. So the second Mascoutah and Triad elected to go somewhere, then everybody else has to search for a home.”

Caupert further explained his point, saying conference realignment could have been an ideal opportunity for the similarly sized Waterloo and Highland to come together, reinforcing conference ties with Jerseyville and Civic Memorial while also inviting other schools in the area to join the MVC.

“When I look at the facilities, I don’t think that there is a conference in Southern or Southwestern Illinois that beats what we have in the Mississippi Valley Conference,” Caupert said. “I just think that this is somewhat sad.”

Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron responded to Caupert, noting there was an effort to keep the MVC from disbanding.

“There were numerous interactions,” Charron said. “We did beg for three of the Cahokia Conference schools to join with us. I would argue that Waterloo and Highland were probably the most outspoken that we wanted the MVC to stick together. That was also pretty easy for Waterloo and Highland to take that position because we were in the middle, and we felt very comfortable having a couple schools that were a little bit smaller than us and a couple schools that were a little bit bigger… I think it’s fair to say that there was a disconnect between the two biggest schools and the two smallest schools in our conference.”

Amidst all this conversation, one parent present at the meeting addressed the board and Gould to ask what impact the conference change would have on students.

Gould indicated that changes would be minimal. 

He spoke about basketball as a specific example, with students still set to compete in 35 games and the opponents throughout those games not changing drastically.

Following this conversation, amid other action items, the board voted to accept the invitation to join the Cahokia Conference, with President Lori Dillenberger, Vice President Neil Giffhorn, Secretary Amanda Propst, Jodi Burton and James Yaekel voting in approval. Nathan Mifflin was absent.

The only board member to vote against this motion was Caupert, though this would seem to have been largely symbolic as he noted during the conference discussion that joining the South 7 Conference wasn’t being entertained or advocated for at this point. He had further emphasized he didn’t intend for his comments to influence any other board members’ decisions.

Other news

Besides the Cahokia Conference, the board also approved a contract with Bi-County Small Engine Center totalling no more than $10,000 for two 2025 zero-turn mowers with the trade-in of two 2023 zero turn mowers.

With a prompt from Giffhorn, Charron and Director of Building and Grounds Will Hulett reiterated the point that these trade-ins were in-line with a schedule to keep district equipment up-to-date in a way that makes more financial sense than trying to keep aging equipment running.

The board also approved Kennel Klub programming for the school year as well as a number of new employments, including a speech pathologist, two junior high physical education teachers, a high school social studies teacher and an elementary special education teacher.

Giffhorn – noting he meant no offense to the district’s other special education teachers – remarked on the latter’s resume which included a PhD and a letter of recommendation from Fox High School.

Earlier in the meeting, as part of the monthly presentation by the Waterloo Classroom Teachers Association, the board heard from Waterloo High School’s vocation department, specifically a number of students in the department.

Students spoke about their experiences in auto-shop, construction, childhood development, agriculture and business classes, emphasizing the substantial benefits they’ve encountered learning about career fields they’re interested in.

Some topics included how ag students have learned about biosecurity – a subject of recent note given how bird flu has impacted chickens in the country and thus increased the price of eggs – and how learning about both physical and cognitive development in children has helped one student work in her church’s nursery.

Along these lines, WHS Principal Tim McDermott chimed in to note the school’s charity concert for Monroe County House of Neighborly Service takes place this Saturday, with tickets still available. The concert, featuring Adam Wainwright and Craig Campbell, has been put together in no small part thanks to student organization.

“Students have been involved in a lot of parts of the planning and will be there to help us make sure that event goes smoothly,” McDermott said. “It’s been a good experience, and I can’t wait to hear the students talk about it when they’re done.”

At the top of the meeting, Charron also touched on the small degree of damage the school district suffered as a result of the high winds and heavy storms that hit the region Friday night.

As he noted in his report, Waterloo schools suffered only minor damage, with some switch boxes getting blown by power surges and phones not rebooting properly. Everything was apparently up and running again by Monday afternoon.

“Fortunately, our schools made it through the storm on Friday night relatively unscathed,” Charron said. “I heard rumors on Facebook that we lost part of the roof. It probably looked worse than it was.”