While the public hearing on and ultimate approval of the 2024 tax levy was the biggest topic at the Waterloo School Board’s December meeting, most other action items last Monday evening concerned construction or maintenance projects throughout the district.

The board approved authorization for six projects, including a 10-year health-life safety survey for Rogers Elementary, a district bleacher inspection, replacement of the Waterloo High School cooling tower, district pavement improvements, Waterloo Junior High School bleacher replacement and a partial roof replacement at Zahnow Elementary.

Regarding the Zahnow partial roof replacement, the board awarded this bid for $123,609 to Kehrer Brothers Construction.

While board president Lori Dillenberger, secretary Amanda Propst, Jodi Burton, John Caupert, Nathan Mifflin and vice president Neil Giffhorn each voted in favor of this bid, James Yaekel voted against, commenting after the meeting he has nothing against the company – he added they have done work with the district previously – but felt hesitant given past OSHA violations.

The board also approved extra-duty assignments and the second reading of board policies Press Plus Issue 117.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron’s monthly superintendent’s report featured information concerning ongoing talks about the future of the district’s athletic conference.

As Charron described, he, Waterloo Athletic Director Tim Gould and WHS Principal Tim McDermott had been in conversation with various other district administrators in the region, talking about the possibility of establishing a “super conference.”

Charron explained that this expanded conference including many schools in the area would help address apparent “instability” with current conferences, also aiding exceptionally long travel times which have been troublesome for a number of teams.

“There’s a lot of schools in the metro east that are facing similar situations,” Charron said. “I know one school drove to Cincinnati, Ohio, for a football game. We’re wanting to stabilize that and guarantee ourselves travel of less than two hours for games but also create what could be, in our opinion, an exciting atmosphere for athletes.”

This super conference would be comprised of several divisions, with schools able to adjust their division. This would allow, for example, larger schools to drop down a division if they have a weaker athletic team or a smaller school to go up a division should a team be particularly strong.

These divisions, Charron noted, would be different for each sport, so districts with a very strong basketball team but a weaker football team would be able to pit each team against appropriate opponents.

Charron noted this discussion only began very recently, though strong positive response from a number of districts could see the matter require action very soon.

Also in Charron’s report, he voiced appreciation for special education coordinator Julie Bender, who is retiring after 26 years with the district.

“She is genuine, and loyal to everybody in the room, but kids come first,” Charron said. “I truly believe that she has been a blessing to this community and our school district in every way that she does her job, with her preparation, with her attention to detail, with her standing firm when somebody needs to be treated right.”

This month’s report from the Waterloo Classroom Teachers Association featured Katie Esker, a second grade teacher at Rogers.

As with previous WCTA grade presentations, Esker spoke highly about the work her and her colleagues do with their students, also sharing a video highlighting activities such as the recent Thanksgiving parade and a trip to the First National Bank of Waterloo.

“We have a really amazing group of teachers, paras, our specials, our music, our PE, our reading teachers,” Esker said. “We all work really, really well together… All of the students get to participate in these activities because we’re all involved in the planning and the organizing and the decorating.”

Also in administrative reports, McDermott, prompted by Giffhorn, spoke about the positive response seen in the high school as WHS has given students the option to not take semester finals contingent on good behavior and strong academic performance.

Caupert also chimed in to speak on the WHS pep band and the impact it had on the atmosphere in the gym recently being placed closer to the other students during basketball games.

Ahne returned to the podium to address the board again during public participation, speaking positively about the district as well as being able to see each grade get featured during the WCTA presentation.

Former board member Kim Ahne also mentioned how, as he recently moved out of the community, he reached out to WHS wrestling coach Chase Guercio, who offered to bring several athletes to assist in moving boxes out of the house.

Ahne said the students were commendably fast and respectful, knocking out the job in an hour before heading off to practice just a bit later.

“I have nothing else but the highest praise for whenever someone needs help in this community, they come out and help,” Ahne said. “Thank you to the district on employing people of that stature.”

WJHS Assistant Principal Cara Brown also spoke to the board, echoing some sentiments from Ahne as she spoke highly about the district and the impact educators have on student’s character.

Brown particularly spoke about some of what is being done in the school with a program bringing special education students and students in the general program together, with both groups responding remarkably well.

“I think an important part of what we do as educators doesn’t really always have to do with the course content,” Brown said. “It has to do with the creation of students who understand the importance of who they are as people and how they impact the community.”