LISTEN: La Crosse School superintendent Dr. Engel on election, building plans, gun violence walkout

School District of La Crosse superintendent Dr. Aaron Engel joins. We discussed the passing of the operating referendum, student walkout on gun violence, future middle school classes being cut, elementary building consolidation.

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.

We began with a bit of a sigh of relief from Engel as Tuesday’s election saw La Crosse voters turn out 65% in favor of the district’s six-year, $60-million operating budget request. We discussed what that means and then moved on to a Logan student walking due, in part, to the Tennessee school shooting and no action against gun violence.

After that, we discussed the district’s situation with now over $100 million in building deferred maintenance, and how old some of the schools are.

Spent another big part of the show discussing the plan going forward — after closing Lincoln MS — to cut one period of classes and make class time longer, plus who has input on those decisions.

We ended discussing the next stages of building consolidation, which could include elementary schools and how that process is created and plays out in public.