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La Crosse School Board passes two budget plans, waiting for referendum before knowing which one will be used

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The La Crosse School Board passed two potential district budgets for this year.

Only one of them will take effect, depending on whether the $194.7 million referendum to build a new high school passes or fails Nov. 8.

If the referendum to build on the Trane Company property is approved, the tax levy for the year will be $60 million. The levy will be $46 million if the referendum fails. District spending in either case would be around $100 million for the year.

The November ballot question calls for $194.7 million remodel, moving three middle schools into what is now Central and Logan high schools. Declining enrollment and an over abundance of aging buildings are partly the reasoning behind the plan.

The district’s business services director, Patty Sprang, said during the meeting Monday enrollment in the district has dropped below 6,000, which was a bigger decline than expected.

Sprang predicted a drop of only 45 students from last year’s total of 6,116, but instead, enrollment fell by 156 students — down to 5,960 in mid-September. The enrollment had been above 7,000, as recently as 2010.

A budget had to be passed by the school board before a Nov. 1 deadline.

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.

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1 Comment

  1. Kent

    October 25, 2022 at 7:13 am

    So they move the middle schools into the high schools , build a new $194 million dollar high school with declining enrollment , they still have up keep on the logan and centeral high schools , why dont they just move the middle schoolers to the two existing high schools ??????????? waste of tax payers money , This Mayor loves to spend our tax dollars !!!!!!!!!

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