La Crosse Schools Superintendent Engel on teacher raises, truancy, selling Lincoln, elementary consolidation

La Crosse School Superintendent Dr. Aaron Engel joined and we got right into it with school starting next week, teacher raises, truancy on the rise, selling Lincoln Middle School and consolidating elementaries. 

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 talking about truancy, as it was higher than it had ever been last year, and what the district planned over the summer to bring that number down. 

After that, we discussed the new state budget and how that affected the district. Part of the budget was an increase of $325 per student for the next 400 years, put in place through the governor’s veto pen. There was a lot of outrage over that funding but it sounds like it still isn’t enough.

We then talked a bit about how teachers can only deduct $300 for school supplies — or that teachers would need to spend any of their own money on supplies — and we hit on where the district is with school meal debt.

After that, we ended the show with a longer conversation about the process of elementary school consolidation through the Facilities Advisory Committee, which is a little over halfway done with its studies. We transitioned that into a discussion about the sale process for Lincoln Middle School and how the district wasn’t happy about it getting a historic designation, just as it was being listed for sale.

SHOW LINKS:

Facilities Advisory Committee
https://www.lacrosseschools.org/facilities-advisory-committee/

Lincoln Middle School historic designation
https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/07/13/historic-status-for-lincoln-middle-school-upheld-appeal-by-la-crosse-school-district-denied/