The Waterloo School Board met Monday night to discuss a number of smaller items such as adjustments to bleacher replacements at the junior high and next year’s school calendar, though a sizable portion of the meeting centered around the district’s future athletic conference participation.

The talk about the Mississippi Valley Conference soon coming to an end came about during Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron’s monthly report.

Charron has previously spoken about the state of the MVC and plans to join a new conference. As he noted Monday evening, he and Waterloo School District Athletic Director Tim Gould attended meetings on this matter in November.

“Our conference is dissolving, leaving Waterloo, Highland, Jersey and Civic left in our conference,” Charron said. “We did have a very enticing invitation from the South Seven Conference… While we were intrigued by that offer, another discussion got generated from the Cahokia Conference who represents lots of schools, all smaller than us, but some that are closer to our size.”

The conversation ultimately concluded with Charron explaining that an action item would be brought before the school board next month, with Waterloo coaches largely indicating a preference toward the Cahokia Conference.

For more on this situation, click here.

Two action items concerned renovation projects in the district, the first being an asphalt repair planned for the summer at Gardner Elementary.

Charron noted that bids for the project came back thoroughly under budget, with base and alternate bids amounting to $327,880 to Sonnenberg Asphalt Company.

The board approved this bid as well as a change order concerning the Waterloo Junior High School bleacher replacement project.

The change order involved a change in manufacturers for the bleachers to Hussey Seating Company. With an increase in price joined with several smaller price deductions, the overall change order amounted to an increase of $11,783.

The board also approved the 2025-26 school calendar, with no changes from the previous tentative calendar even as administration collected various feedback within the district.

Other action items included approval of updated job descriptions, a contract approval for Director of Technology Nicholas Hergenroeder and two employment approvals – one for Waterloo High School Assistant Principal and the other for a full-time elementary special education teacher as a longtime paraprofessional in the district is anticipated to obtain a teaching license.

On the last approval item, Board Vice President Neil Giffhorn chimed in to express his approval as it was indicated several other paras in the district are currently participating in a similar program to obtain licensure.

“I think it’s a great thing that those folks are at that level on improving themselves and improving the district, and I would encourage everyone to look into that,” Giffhorn said. “Professional development is awesome, especially for someone making that jump.”

Waterloo Classroom Teachers Association President Renee Koeneman responded to Giffhorn, noting how the pay arrangement with the current contract helps the district keep faculty members who advance in this way.

Another substantial chunk of the meeting once again focused on the WCTA with a presentation from WJHS art teacher Annette Rau as she discussed various aspects of her students’ day-to-day.

Rau – joined by Hergenroeder who negotiated a malfunctioning presentation – spoke about the junior high students modeling eyes in art, studying the constitution in social studies, playing hockey in PE and practicing their argumentative speeches in language arts, among other highlights.

One of the other large focuses was on the Best Buddies program which had students baking and selling cookies.

Rau closed out her presentation by speaking about her reason for sticking with the school for so many years. She described a recent school improvement meeting in which faculty members took a list of students, identifying various likes, friendships and other details about their students.

“I’ve been teaching at the junior high for 26 years, and that’s a long time,” Rau said. “Putting this presentation together really kinda had me looking at my ‘why,’ and I really had to think about my ‘why’… Part of my ‘why’ is that I didn’t have that in middle school, and the fact that, at the junior high, we care that much to make sure that that happens. That’s my ‘why.’”