Lowell Elementary Bed Bug Discovery Prompts Mandatory Parent Meeting

WAUKESHA — Lowell Elementary School held a mandatory parent meeting Wednesday evening after a janitorial crew doing routine Tuesday-night cleaning found bed bugs in two second-grade classrooms, prompting a weekend disinfection effort the district described as a "comprehensive disinfection protocol."

Roughly 147 parents filled the cafeteria for the 6 p.m. session, which ran 52 minutes and included a slideshow, a sign-in sheet, and a single microphone passed hand to hand down two rows of folding chairs. District spokesperson Carol Driggs told the crowd the insects were confined to carpeted reading corners and upholstered classroom chairs in Rooms 112 and 114, and that no bugs were found in the adjoining hallway, the library, or the cafeteria.

The cleaning timeline

Driggs outlined a two-night plan: a contracted crew will steam-clean carpeting and furniture Friday night, then return Saturday for a heat-treatment pass using a portable unit capable of raising room temperature to 135 degrees for four hours, a threshold Driggs called "well above what the literature recommends." Both classrooms are scheduled to reopen Monday morning, with Rooms 112 and 114 students temporarily relocated to the school's two music rooms for Thursday and Friday classes.

"We did not find anything in any textbook, workbook, or classroom library book," Driggs said, reading from a prepared statement. "Only carpeting and upholstered furniture tested positive. Backpacks, as always, should be checked at home as a precaution."

Parent questions

"If my daughter's stuffed animal can't come back to school until it's been in a hot dryer for 45 minutes, I want that written down somewhere official."

— Denise Oldach, parent of a second-grader

Oldach's question, about whether the district would supply mattress covers for affected households, was one of eleven questions logged on the meeting's sign-up sheet. Driggs said the district does not typically provide home bedding supplies but would distribute a one-page "home prevention checklist" in Friday's folder.

Parent Russ Teune asked whether classroom books needed to be quarantined separately from furniture, a question Driggs had already addressed in her opening remarks but answered again at length, prompting a round of applause from a cluster of parents near the stage. A third parent, who gave only her first name, Pam, asked that the meeting's minutes be posted on the district website, citing "transparency concerns," a request Driggs said would be forwarded to the communications office.

What happens to the carpet

The carpet squares in both rooms, installed in 2019 according to building records cited by Driggs, will be removed entirely rather than steam-cleaned a second time if Saturday's heat treatment doesn't fully clear a follow-up inspection Sunday morning. Facilities director Len Horchak said replacement tile, if needed, is already on order and could be installed over the three-day weekend without further disruption to the Monday reopening.

Horchak also fielded a question about whether the two classrooms would be inspected again before the end of the semester. He said a 30-day recheck is standard district procedure after any pest finding of this kind, and that Rooms 112 and 114 would be the first stop on that recheck list regardless of how Saturday's treatment goes.

The meeting closed with Driggs thanking parents for "showing up and staying calm," a line that drew a smattering of laughter from the back rows, where several parents had arrived straight from the Lowell parking lot still wearing Culver's uniforms from the dinner shift. Sign-in sheets will be kept on file at the district office, Driggs said, in case any parent wants to confirm attendance for their own employer.