Education
La Crosse teachers’ union president Martinez on school board endorsements, new elementary school plans

La Crosse Education Association co-president Jesse Martinez joins to talk about the plans for the new elementary, what it probably won’t be named, plus their process to endorsing school board candidates.
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 wherever you get your podcasts.
Martinez is a seventh-grade social studies and math teacher at Logan Middle School, along with being the teachers’ union co-president, so we also talked about some funny stories he’s experienced in the classroom.
In discussing the school board elections, Martinez told us the process for why they endorsed Merideth Garcia, Jeff Jackson and Molly Fuchs.
Part of that was filling out their questionnaire but only four of the seven candidates — the three listed here, plus Kevin Hundt — took the time to answer the teachers’ union.
In regards to the new elementary school building, Martinez talked about the teachers’ union input into those plans and how they used Northside Elementary as a reference point.

Mike Hochertz
March 24, 2025 at 1:10 pm
Again, they do not talk about substance for education. Reading scores, math scores, science, or anything that contributes to student education. What they focus on is their own enrichment for the 170 days they teach per year.
They focus on electing a liberal judge so they can go back to policies that are standard in private business. We all have to contribute to our own retirement accounts. We pay monthly health insurance premiums, deductibles, and high out of pocket expenses. The educators TALK about”think of the children” when in reality they want more for themselves. If private business reward low quality performance in their products, no raises would be provided.
A teachers product IS the children.
Time to start changing the narrative