Education
Jimenez on La Crosse School’s $53.5 million referendum question, WTC’s new class terms
La Crosse School Board president, and Western Tech associate dean, Dr. Juan Jimenez, in the WIZM studio Thursday for La Crosse Talk PM discussing new class terms at the college and the school district’s $53.5 million referendum question on the November ballot.
La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.
Began the show, though, talking a bit about school getting ready to start and rule from the state that it can’t begin before Sept. 1, because the tourism industry needs child labor through the summer months, and if that rule should or could change with a different state Legislature.
Then we got into how Western Technical College (7:05) is getting set to implement, full time, new class term lengths and why it made that decision. WTC slow rolled that out over summer and is now doing seven-week- long classes full time.
Lastly (20:35), we hit on the School District of La Crosse’s $53.5 million referendum question for the fall election that will do these things:
- Create eight new classrooms, new gym at State Road Elementary
- Tear down the Hogan Administrative site.
- Consolidate students from Emerson and Spence into new elementary at the Hogan site.
- Close Hintgen and consolidate those students to State Road.
Come On Man
August 16, 2024 at 8:27 am
Has ANYONE asked what is going to happen to the three schools they want to close?
Are they going to sell those properties to help offset the $53 million dollar price tag of the new school?
If the city plans on keeping those properties (Possibly sheltering the homeless at the Spence location?) how is that going to help the city save money if they have to maintain those properties?
No one seems to be forth coming on those three properties and how building this new school with declining enrollment will be saving the taxpayers any money.
LG
August 16, 2024 at 12:35 pm
According to Juan Jimenez during his interview with Rick, he basically said they do not know yet What they want to do with the school properties. In short, there is no set plan on the disposal of the property. They are planning to take out a 20 year loan for us taxpayers to pay for the next 20 years at today’s current high interest rate. He actually stated they don’t know yet what they want to do with the properties. He thinks they might want to keep them in case 20 years from now they want to build a new school on one of the sites. that is, they do not want to give up the property in case they need it in the future. No financial sense. There’s your answer. A non-answer From the school board president
LG
August 16, 2024 at 12:54 pm
It will not save any money. By the time you build at today’s high construction cost for labor and materials +20 years of interest for an unnecessary building, nothing will be saved. They need to address declining enrollment, reduce the size of the school district and call it a day. Instead, they continue to push forward on new spending plans without regard to cost to taxpayers, in particular those taxpayers on fixed incomes, no children, and of course, this is all about creating a razzle dazzle new building for the few students that will have the opportunity to attend that brand new school While every other student in the district attends the same schools currently in existence. Rather than trying to analyze and make sense out of the school boards, folly, I would encourage everyone you know to vote No. And by the way, they do not have a Plan B in case the referendum is voted down. They’re still trying to figure that one out. They would’ve been much better off downsizing the district To reflect the reduced number of students and leaving it at that.