For four West High staff members, the 2024-25 school year marked the end of their time at West.
Donnie Binegar has worked as a custodian at West for the past 35 years, working hard to make West shine. Alice Jones and Steve Merkle are two vital members of West’s Special Education Department, both of which have been at West for around three decades.
Carolyn Walling is also saying goodbye to West High this year after 16 years as a chemistry teacher.
Additionally, this article features two extracurricular staff members: Becky Dagle, the Costumes Director for Theatre West, and Steve Bergman, the boys basketball Head Coach.
Click on the images below to skip to specific profiles.
Donnie Binegar
Donny Binegar has worked as a custodian at West for the past 35 years, working hard to make West shine.
“People say because he’s been here for so long that he was actually made in the art room out of clay,” David Reynolds, Donny’s stepson and fellow custodian, said.
Reynolds has many fond memories of his stepfather, including visiting him at work when he was younger.
“When I was about nine or ten, we would come here and help him check doors and stuff…I remember [when] I was like three years old and coming here and playing hide and go seek in the auditorium,” Reynolds said.
“We would bring the kids, and they would play in the south gym, they would play basketball, soccer,” Binegar said.
Reynolds recalled a time when he was at school with Binegar late at night when he was younger.
“I went down the hallway to go check the doors and one of the last rooms, the door was creaked open, and I looked in there and there was a figure like a human, so I ran because I thought it was somebody in there stealing stuff, so I ran and slid, like a baseball slide,” Reynolds said.
It turned out that the figure was a Ronald McDonald statue that currently resides in the journalism room.
In the summer, the janitors work to clean every room from top to bottom, including the lights, windows and walls. It can get incredibly hot, affecting the work. When Binegar first started working at West, the building didn’t have air conditioning.
“The wax would dry totally different than now, with the humidity and stuff,” Binegar said. “But they got air conditioning now, it goes so much easier, it dries a little bit faster.”
Binegar’s hobbies include spending time with family, hunting, fishing and enjoying time outdoors. After retirement, he plans to travel and stay busy.
His advice to students is to “stop destroying the bathrooms.”
Alice Jones
Beloved paraeducator Alice Jones is saying goodbye to West High after working here for 30 years. While West will be sad to see her go, her contributions to the West High community will never be forgotten.
Jones originally came to West in 1994 looking for work, but being a para hadn’t yet crossed her mind. Once she read a paraeducator job description, she gave it a shot and interviewed.
“I was kind of just looking for work and at the time I was like, ‘hmm, we could do that,’” Jones said.
Jones quickly learned some core skills a para needs is the ability to adapt and to keep an open mind.
“[Having] open listening ears and the ability to kind of shape shift into whatever is needed has helped me with this [job],” Jones said.
Some of the most rewarding aspects of working at West for Jones have been working with students. Helping students work their way through high school to prepare them for the world is something Jones has enjoyed the most.
“Being able to learn about all these different abilities of all of the students, not only the special needs students, but students in general, and being able to help them grow into adults,” Jones said.
Having been at West for so long, Jones has seen the school undergo many changes, one being how disabled people are treated. At the beginning of her time here, she noticed exclusion and negative attitudes towards her students. She has since seen an increase of acceptance as people work to become more inclusive and accommodating of students with special needs.
“At first we were kind of hidden. Seen and not heard, basically. And now we are fully included in everything that we can be,” Jones said. “Everybody says ‘Hi’ now, whereas we were kind of just there [before].”
As the years have gone by Jones has noticed a decrease in ableism, both in the students and staff. But the changes have not been easy, and Jones has faced challenges in the past to advocate for her students.
“Some attitudes have changed over time, but just because those people have left and new people have come in,” Jones said.
Another difficult aspect of her job is saying goodbye to the students that have graduated. But Jones often makes an effort to remain in contact with all her old students.
“I stay connected with most of them, whether they remember me or not,” Jones said.
She will miss not only her students but her co-workers as well. Having worked with some for decades, she has formed close friendships throughout the building.
“I’m going to miss all the friendships and the family connections with staff and students, because these friends that I’ve had for over 30 years,” Jones said.
The most important lesson Jones has learned while working at West is patience. She believes this is the most crucial aspect of working with disabled students, and a skill she has gained over the years.
“If you were to move on from something that your student isn’t quite there for, you’re not going to get what you want. You have to give them time to understand what you want. You [have] to be patient,” Jones said.
Being a para has been instrumental in teaching Jones about the experiences of those with special needs. She now applies the things she’s learned with helping her son, who has special needs.
“The personal growth that I’ve had in opening my eyes to the world of special needs, and then being able to teach people how to understand people with special needs, and then having a special needs son myself, I’ve been able to help him even more,” Jones said.
Moving on from West, Jones plans to continue her work as a para on the side with two current West seniors she works with.
“I’m actually going to go back to work, but in a different space, so I won’t be with the world of special needs for my main job yet I am going to be with two of our seniors in dealing with adult care,” Jones said.
Steve Merkle
Throughout his 27 years at West, Steve Merkle has seen many job positions and students come and go; but one thing hasn’t changed — his dedication to serving people with intellectual disabilities and their families.
Growing up in a family of educators, his dad was a principal and his mom a teacher, Merkle was planning on going into education, but not special education. He’s always loved working with his hands, and over time developed a love for woodworking, ultimately deciding to pursue it in college. But over time, industrial technology moved away from bolts and screws and towards more technology-based modeling.
For the next five years, Merkle alternated between different jobs but eventually found his way back to education. He originally started substitute teaching in Grinnell, Iowa, eventually getting into special education. After that, he started going back to college to get a degree in special education and ended up getting a job after he had half of his credits done and continued pursuing his degree while working in Atlantic, Iowa.
Merkle eventually got a job at West, where he has taught for 27 years. In his time at West, Merkle’s favorite events were the Community Inclusion Club basketball game and community music talent show, both annual events that he founded and grew over time.
The CIC basketball game has become an annual tradition where special education students and West basketball players compete against teachers. On the day of the event the gym is full with students ready to watch and drumline add to the energy of the event.
Merkle was also a part of founding the annual talent show that he hosts with Diane Miller, who teaches West’s community music class. The show allows disabled students a chance to engage with music and learn important life skills by performing.
“Every year some kid steps up,” Merkle said. “And there was one year where this kid had some serious autistic tendencies, but he could sing, and he just nailed the American woman song, the Lenny Kravitz version.”
Not only did Merkle have positive impacts on his students, but he is also beloved by his coworkers.
“Steve is practically an institution for special education students, both at West High and in the community. His attitude and dedication to his students is contagious,” J.P. Claussen, a fellow member of West’s Special Education Department, said.
For Merkle, the “stars aligned” this year and it became clear to him it was time to retire.
“They’ve been giving out really good packages to get teachers to retire the last three or four years … But then some things are changing with how we’re delivering things, and so I’m needing to learn a lot of new ways how we’re doing our specially designed instruction,” Merkle said. I just turned 65 and I looked at the money I’ll be making, and it just kind of said, ‘Hey, it’s time to go.’”
Though his time as a West High paraeducator is ending, Merkle plans on remaining active in the disability community and helping how he can. His role in the Community Inclusion Club for adults, seperate from the one at West, allows him to assist and engage with people with disabilities outside of the West community through activities they host, such as the special olympics.
“We have a party at least once a month. They’re starting a neat project on Gilbert Street for Sunday art projects. And I’m into art too, so I’m going to do that.
Outside the CIC, Merkle will be working with the Iowa City Bike Library to expand a tricycle project he started at West. In his time at West, Merkle started a tricycle collection for people with disabilities. These tricycles are usually expensive, so he would provide tricycles to West High families for their students with physical challenges.
Moving to the Iowa City Bike Library will allow Merkle to help not only high school students, but a wide range of people, young and old.
In retirement, Merkle plans on spending more time on his hobbies, such as hunting, spending time outdoors and woodworking.
“I got about 110, maybe more, projects that I’ve been dreaming of doing. My house still could use some work, I do some of that kind of thing, carpentry and stuff,” Merkle said.
Read Merkle’s 2023 WSS profile here.
Carolyn Walling
After teaching at West for 16 years, Carolyn Walling will be retiring at the end of this school year. Although Walling plans on being a full time grandma after she retires, her contributions as a teacher will last.
Even though Walling’s career is in teaching chemistry, her true passion is in travelling and learning languages.
“When I was in college, I had a double major, and my major was chemistry and Spanish. I did Spanish because I wanted to spend my junior year abroad in Madrid. I got my chemistry degree because I figured you could always get a job with chemistry, but probably not Spanish.”
After getting her undergraduate degree in chemistry and Spanish, Walling began working at Drake University as a lab technician.
“Part of working at Drake was that I could take any classes that I wanted to, but the only classes that fit into my schedule were education classes. I thought being a teacher would be a good job,” Walling said.
With a master’s in education and an undergraduate degree in Spanish, Walling secured her first teaching job as a spanish teacher in St. Louis. Once she moved to Iowa City, she became a full-time chemistry teacher.
In her time as a chemistry teacher at West, Walling has made quite the impact on her peers and her students. From students to staff, Walling’s contributions will be remembered for generations to come.
Student teacher Lucas Absler has learned a lot about teaching chemistry in his three months under Walling.
“I have learned an unbelievable amount from Ms. Walling. She has a lot of information and experience that has helped me develop my skills and learn the best methods for instruction.”
Students of Walling are going to miss her energy and enthusiasm that she brings to her classroom.
Science fair student Erin Chen ‘27 expresses her relationship with Walling and how it has helped her with science fair and in high school.
“I feel like working on my science fair project with her has given me the chance to learn more about her and have some good conversations, so I definitely feel like it has helped me build a strong teacher-student relationship with her.” Chen said.
Walling’s unique personality is something students are going to miss the most when it comes to her retirement. Whether it be her storytelling or gentle encouragement, her impact is everlasting.
“I am really going to miss her encouraging energy. Even when I was really stressed about things, she would slip me a note saying I’ll do great, or tell me what I need tweak to make my presentation better. I’ll also miss her stories and sense of adventure, whether it be hearing about her trip to Antarctica, or deciding to take the science fair group on a spontaneous trip to the bowling alley.” Chen said.
After Walling retires, she plans on travelling and becoming a full time grandma for her future grandbaby.
“We are going to Morocco in July, and then we’re going to Cuba in January. I’m mostly staying home with my future grandbaby, because that’ll be my job.”
Read Walling’s previous WSS profile here.
Becky Dagle
In September, a set of rooms lies stark behind Arganbright Auditorium, with white walls and concrete floors; it is certainly not a place one would call homey. A mere two months later, in November, these rooms are bustling with actors, sewing machines, racks of colorful costumes and a crew of students all led by Becky Dagle.
Throughout Dagle’s 15 years as Theatre West’s Costume Designer, she has made connections with both the directors and the students on her crew.
Dagle is technically considered an outside contractor, but fondly calls herself a “professional volunteer” and received a small stipend for her work. While her official role is to design and create costumes, over the past decade, her involvement has grown to encompass all aspects of theater. Whether sets needed to be built or curtains needed to be sewn, Dagle was willing to help.
Dagle has never had any formal training in costuming. She first picked up the sewing needle to stitch together a costume 25 years ago when her daughter was in first grade. “My first costumes I did were duct tape and safety pins, and I am not kidding,” Dagle said.
It’s easy to see that Dagle’s skills have come far from where she started over the years. However, mistakes are a part of growth and Dagle has made her fair share. In the first show she helped with, “Beauty and the Beast” in the fall of 2011, some of the learning happened through these mistakes.
“It was a beast of a show, as they say…We used a lot of foam, and I had somebody painting foam, and I didn’t realize that certain paints will eat through foam,” Dagle said. “So we did a bunch of flatware, and then you come back the next day, and it started to disintegrate. Lesson learned there: be careful of what kind of paint you use.
Over the next decade, Dagle created an eclectic collection of costumes from silverware hats, ghosts, ballgowns and beige suits.
Though every show comes with its challenges, Dagle says she’s enjoyed every single one. Even when Theatre West performed “Into the Woods” outdoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dagle still enjoyed it, even though it wasn’t quite what she imagined it would be.
“I always wanted to do ‘Into the Woods.’ That was my favorite one. ‘Can we do it? Can we do it? Can we do it?’ But it was such a small cast, they said, ‘Oh, we can’t really do that,’” Dagle said. “But then COVID came, and then we had to be outdoors. And so that was a great opportunity to have a smaller cast.”
Over the months it takes to create a show, costumes crew makes their space home, whether that’s through chatting while sewing or doing other sorts of group activities. For “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the crew got shirts that said “Willy Wonka’s costume makers.” All the shirts had nicknames on the back; Dagle’s read, “Queen Bee.”
Not only did Dagle form connections with her crew, but she also bonded with the directors who worked with her for the majority of her time at West. The bonds she formed with directors Katy Nahra, Ann Rocarek and Christian Aanestad went beyond Arganbright Auditorium and into their everyday lives.
“I started out with Mrs. Nahra before she even had kids,” Dagle said. Then I got to babysit her kids, as she had them, and we try to get together outside of theater … The same way with Ms. Rocarek, we get together as a group and the three of us and have dinner and just have become friends.”
Even though she loves the time she spent with Theatre West, Dagle has decided it is time for her to move on from her role.
“I always said that when it wasn’t fun anymore, that was when it was time to hang it up. And it’s just, the last year, couple years, it just seemed more like work than fun.”
To share their gratitude for all of her hard work, the costumes crew gifted Dagle a quilt with all the shows she had worked on before the final performance of “The Sound of Music.”
“I had a feeling they were doing something, but I had never would have imagined that it would be a quilt like that. I mean, I quilt myself. I’ve never been gifted a quilt.”
Dagle said she’ll miss show week, but most of all the people in Theatre West. However Dagle told the directors that, even though she would no longer be costume director, she would still love to help out with the program.
“I said I would love to come back on set build days and help with that. I would love to help my replacement,” Dagle said. “I’d love to continue helping that respect. I just can’t be in charge anymore.”
In retirement, Dagle plans on spending more time with her daughter, who lives in St. Paul, Minn.
Now that she’s retired, Dagle has more time to do other things she enjoys, such as spending time with her daughter, quilting or binge watching shows.
“We have season tickets to the theater up there. So it was always like, ‘Gosh, we have the costume parade, but I have a show in Minneapolis,’” Dagle said. “It just started conflicting with things in my personal life that I just didn’t want to give up, and I’d like to spend more time with my daughter, and my son is in Iowa City, but he won’t be here forever, and my husband’s going to retire soon, and so I just want some free time to just pick up and go if we want to go away for a couple of days.”
Steve Bergman
For 35 years, boys basketball Head Coach Steve Bergman has been mentoring the lives of countless young men in West High’s boys basketball program. In the span of his career Bergman has won six state championships, has had over 600 career victories and 19 state tournament appearances. After a record-breaking career, Bergman has decided to hang up his coaching hat and retire. Though he may be leaving West High, his impact will remain for generations to come.
Bergman grew up in Grundy Center, a small town in Iowa, surrounded by basketball. His uncle Norman (Bud) Bergman was a big inspiration for Steve since Bud was a basketball coach at Waverly-Shell Rock High School for 29 years. Bergman grew up going to his games and grew a passion for the sport over time.
“[Bud] went to the state tournament a lot, and whenever I went to his games it looked like a lot of fun” Steve Bergman said, “It looked like a better job than selling tractors”
Steve Bergman played basketball throughout high school and into college, where he realized that even though he enjoyed playing basketball, coaching was where his heart was at. He began his career as a sophomore coach at Regina High School. His first head coaching position was in 1984 at Monticello High School. Shortly after leaving Monticello he took a 9-month coaching job in Iceland, coaching an Icelandic pro team. In 1989 he finally found his way to West High, the place he would call home for the rest of his career.
Jack McCaffery ’25 is one of the many players that Bergman coached over his tenure at West. McCaffery, along with his brothers Connor McCaffery ’17 and Patrick McCaffery ’19 were four-year starters for the team, something that Jack McCaffery was prepared for. Growing up with older siblings playing for his team, he got to watch Bergman coach before he got to West, so he had an idea of what was in store for his time here.
“You can look at the sidelines and look at him, he always kind of scared me, he always looked mad” Jack McCaffery said, “But I think you get deceived by that because you never really know someone based on how they coach”
Bergman supported Jack McCaffery through the recruitment process.
“The thing that he preached to me the most was mental toughness, and that’s a big thing in the college game,” McCaffery said. “He focuses so much on defense and makes it such a big deal, that’s the main adjustment that you need in college. And I think that he’s helped better me in a way that wouldn’t have if I played for a different coach.
Your donation will support the student journalists of West High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase Scholarship Yearbooks, newsroom equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
English
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Sundanese
Swahili
Turkish