Education
La Crosse Schools superintendent Engel on referendum timeline, Trump admin. ending Dept. of Education
School District of La Crosse superintendent, Dr. Aaron Engel, joins WIZM’s La Crosse Talk on Monday to discuss what’s next now that the $53.5 million elementary school referendum plan passed, plus we get his thoughts on the Trump administration potentially closing the Department of Education.
La Crosse Talk airs weekdays at 6-8 a.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 also brought up the idea of $4 billion in the next budget to fund public education, which is nearly the same as the state’s budget surplus. Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jill Underly, made that proposal recently.
With the referendum, we discussed what happens next and when — tearing down the Hogan Administration building, creating blueprints for the new elementary, and renovating State Road Elementary with eight new classrooms and a new gym.
Began, though, talking quick about Logan High’s football team getting to the state semifinals.
Libertarian Guy
November 18, 2024 at 12:27 pm
Engel said with 60% in favor of the referendum, he has a mandate. He threatened teachers and the teachers union with being fired if the referendum failed. That’s how he got the additional 11% needed to pass the referendum.
Engel thinks buildings provides a good education. It’s actually the teachers and their skills, interest, ability to motivate students and passion. They have not solved. The operational budget with the referendum recently passed. Expect additional referenda in the future.
Engel talked fence sitters into voting yes by minimizing the actual cost. He is borrowing the money and spreading the debt out over 22 years. 22 years of debt to build 1 new building and small addition to State Road In a district with a declining student population.
Engel is against eliminating the Federal Department of Education because he’s a big government advocate and seemingly rejecting of the local control of schools that would result. Could his interest in becoming the state superintendent be impacting his judgment?
He claimed on this interview that school district taxes will go down. I believe he’s correct for our December tax bill because the tax increase expected from the referendum will not take affect until December 2025.
Once again our elected school board representatives missed the point and failed to rein in this superintendent. This is what happens when an unelected person is put in charge. You can’t get rid of him. You can’t motivate school board members to intervene because they are weak and afraid to stand up to the superintendent.
FYI: This is what our current mayor is trying to accomplish for the city of lacrosse. Hire a city administrator so that the person running the budget cannot be voted out. Beware lacrosse community.
walden
November 18, 2024 at 6:02 pm
Andy asked better questions than the school board; what a refreshing change he is from the usual WIZM propaganda.
That said, Engel is the master of BS. He says he will turn his attention to cost reduction (why did he wait so long) like solar energy installations. Solar installations, absent more taxpayer subsidies, don’t even last enough, or save enough energy to pay for themselves over the lifetime of the equipment. The claimed cost savings is illlusory.
Payroll and benefits account for 80% of district expenses. Yet even with almost 20% decline in students Engel and the absentee school board are carrying the same staff: 1,005 district employees since Engel joined the District (no reduction even after Lincoln Middle was closed).
Of course, what’s missing from all these discussions is declining academic achievement in the District; something the School Board doesn’t even discuss. The state mandated performance “report card” assessment of the district puts it in the lower quartile at the state level. Maybe someone should inquire about that. Apparently, being in the lower quartile doesn’t acivate any expectation of remedy or improvement from the Dept of Education or WI Dept of Public Instruction. So Yeah, lets give them more money.
Parents should run, not walk, from the La Crosse public schools.
Bart
November 19, 2024 at 12:28 pm
Andy full time in morning til Mike can return