Education
La Crosse School Board president Jimenez on population study, district start times, $53.5 million referendum
La Crosse School Board president, Dr. Juan Jimenez, in the WIZM studio Wednesday for La Crosse Talk PM, discussing some jaw dropping numbers to a population study, the district trying to start school earlier, based on its burden to private schools and the $53.5 million referendum.
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 with a bit of an overview, but quickly got into the numbers presented to the school board Monday from a population study that shows enrollment shrinking.
After that, we discussed why the school district wants to start school earlier. It’s state law to start on or after Sept. 1, but only for public schools. Those districts, however, are required to bus private school students, which often start school earlier — as they don’t have to adhere to the same laws.
Lastly, we discussed the referendum, and some of the fallout that might happen if it doesn’t pass, plus what comes next regardless of what happens — which could be dealing with the middle schools.
Joe
October 24, 2024 at 5:59 am
Why does Rick act as a paid endorser for everything government is doing in our county?
Mike Hochertz
October 24, 2024 at 1:02 pm
Because we do don’t contact the owner of the station and let them know what we think
Joe
October 24, 2024 at 6:15 am
Roughly 13 mins in. Mr. Juan admits that Democrat philosophy’s of death and selfishness is hurting society/population. Also 1 student per 3 family households. 1 student per 100 units. I wonder what it is for the private schools. Buildings are 50% full. Pretty sure they don’t need a new building they need to downsize employment.
Vote no.
walden
October 24, 2024 at 10:36 am
Joe, you are correct. Over 80% of the school district budget is payroll and employee benefits. The only way to meaningfully cut cost is to reduce employee headcount. Engel has done nothing to reduce total headcount in his 5 years despite overseeing student declines of almost 25% as families flee to Holmen and Onalaska. If they couldn’t cut headcount this year or last, then how can they cut headcount during a three year construction period as Jiminez suggests? Engel will have moved on before the this project is completed.
Syncronizinig start dates with private schools seems to make sense as an efficiency move. It’s the first creative idea this school board bunch bunch of seat-warmers has ever conceived. Setting aside the question of what took you so long; take credit for the idea and move on.
Instead, Engel and Jiminez show a thinly veiled seething hatred for private schools; its disgusting. If the District doesnt want to bus private students then take private school families off the school tax rolls as well. This is just more divisiveness from these Leftists.
Parents should gather their students and run, not walk, to private schools. Public education is a swamped ship.
Libertarian Guy
October 24, 2024 at 1:02 pm
Joe, agree with Walden. You are absolutely 100% correct. This superintendent does not listen, is tone deaf, and clearly has his own agenda, and the school board members just go along with it because they do not know any better.
The Dude
October 24, 2024 at 1:07 pm
The same garbage 🗑️ is happening in the DeSoto School district. They are trying to pass a referendum for operational expenses.They have declined in enrollment and are not taking the hard measures of school consolidation
Bob N.
October 24, 2024 at 4:07 pm
When Tommy Thompson, the Governor no educator would ever vote for, was our chief executive, nearly all school districts in Wisconsin got new school buildings and the state paid for the bulk of the costs.
Because local school boards cannot seem to quit spending and can’t say no to teachers, school districts almost yearly are going to referendum asking to spend more than they have, even though property taxes are at the point where many people are not able to afford their own home. Falling revenues (student numbers) and increasing costs (payroll and benefits plus questionable classes/programs) is a trend no business would allow to continue or they’d be bankrupt fast. As Tommy’s building program attests, educators are never satisfied. Quit trying to please them-just say NO.
walden
October 24, 2024 at 3:44 pm
Jiminez did say they pick up 1 student per 100 housing units. Does this make sense?
If there are approx 5800 students in the district, this would then indicate 5800 X 100 = 580,000 housing units (which obviously dont exist). In the unlikely event each of those housing units averages only 2 people X 580,0000 housing units that would indicate a district wide population of 1.2 million people.
However, the population of the entirety of la crosse county 2020 census was only 120,000.
???
Libertarian Guy
October 24, 2024 at 10:50 am
In listening to this interview in its entirety, Juan Jimenez confirms what I have said all along. The superintendent is hell-bent on creating a legacy for himself, which is why he wants to build new buildings. Legacy aside, the school district does not need a new building. They need to address their operational budget. Instead of addressing the operational budget, they want to build a fluffy new shiny building. They actually called it a shining star and in at least one of their school board meetings. They have dithered on the need to reduce costs for two years now. They are fretting about the possibility the referendum may fail instead of doing what they need to do to address the operational budget. Few students will benefit from the shiny new building as others will continue to attend existing schools. Parents will pay higher taxes. The school board minimizes the extent of those higher taxes by taking out a 20 year loan, saddling the community with 20 more years of debt and interest. The school board has the power to send flyers promoting their propaganda at taxpayer expense, to hold as many information meetings as necessary to obtain a winning result, the ability to threaten teachers with being fired if the referendum does not pass, and so on. The study the Jimenez referred to predicts continued declining enrollment with significant over capacity in school buildings, But that does not stop their desire to build an unnecessary new school. They do not need a new building community and I encourage everyone reading this to vote no.
BTW, a Survey was sent to parents about changing the school calendar year. When this topic was discussed in the board meeting early this week, the superintendent could not even tell the board the exact results. He admitted he did not know if the response rate of returned surveys was representative of the community. He admitted he did not know what the teachers thought about the change. He admitted they have not determined whether or not to adjust the fall break or the spring break to be longer or shorter than the current length; yet all members of the school board voted unanimously to change the calendar year. What was the point of sending out a survey if you’re not going to know and understand the results before voting on the ? Members of the school board, President Jimenez, and the superintendent like to vilify private schools because, as they say, it takes money away from public schools. The private school voucher program gives parents a choice. It creates competition for the school district to do better. And the parents of private schools have to pay public school taxes Even though their children are not attending public schools. They don’t get a break on their tax bill. They have to pay taxes to the school district and tuition to the private school unless they’re lucky enough to get a voucher.
LG
October 24, 2024 at 12:50 pm
BTW Rick. Listening to you interview someone is painful indeed. Do you ever listen to yourself. You’re constantly asking the same question in multiple ways and when the person you are interviewing tries to answer, you interrupt them, disrupting their train of thought, and you often take them in a different direction than what they were originally speaking about. As I listen, I find myself straining to try to hear the person you are interviewing because you are often talking over them. Just some friendly advice to increase the number of listeners and pleasure of the listening audience. It wouldn’t hurt to research the topic a bit so that you are knowledgeable about counter viewpoints instead of just going along with whatever the liberal school board member presents.
Libertarian Guy
October 24, 2024 at 2:13 pm
Examples: how about inquiring about the tax implications? How about pointing out that 20 years of additional debt is unwise. How about questioning the value of a capital referendum to build school buildings instead of an operational budget referendum to improve teacher salaries and actual education for the kids? How about asking more in-depth questions about actual survey results on the topic of changing the school calendar year? How about questioning why they want to build schools when the study presented shows enrollment will continue to decline and that the district is already over capacity? How about promoting a community discussion on La Crosse Talk a.m. to get input and discussion from the community on this topic? Does this give you any ideas whatsoever Rick or are you just gonna continue to promote a liberal agenda without question or thought?
Sam
November 8, 2024 at 10:48 am
I cannot believe that this passed! It is truly tragic. It may be dye to the confusing and lengthy wording of the referendum question. Maybe some voters skipped it, or misunderstood it.
All through the process Rick has been a cheerleader for this referendum. The cute part is that he lives in Eastern Minnesota, and Aaron Engel lives in Trempealeau. I get the feeling that neither is a great part of our school culture or community because they do not live here. Neither one will have to pay for it, either.