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STRONG SCHOOLS = STRONG COMMUNITY

Preparing Our Students
for the Future

A great education prepares our children for a successful future. We need to provide our students with educational and extracurricular opportunities to prepare them for their future in a collaborative modern learning environment. We must ensure students have access to modern classrooms and labs for collaborative, flexible, and hands-on learning.

The School District of La Crosse is at a critical point, and we must make changes to our facilities to provide our students the learning opportunities they deserve while addressing the aging buildings, declining enrollment, and budgeting challenges the district faces.

Building a new consolidated high school will provide the educational, elective, athletics, and extracurricular opportunities in a modern environment that our 6-12 students deserve to prepare them for the future.

  • Declining Enrollment
  • No New State Funding
  • Aging School Buildings
THE CHALLENGE

After 20 years of declining enrollment, caused by changing local demographics and lower birth rates, and years of reductions in state funding we are facing significant budget deficits now and into the future.

Six of our buildings are over 80 years old, getting more expensive to maintain, and do not meet today’s needs. To adjust, we have cut costs and reduced expenses where it did not impact our ability to educate students.

However, we can no longer afford to heat, clean, and maintain all 15 of our buildings and keep the great opportunities we have for our kids. We must now consolidate grades and buildings to keep class sizes small, offer the electives students need, and provide the engaging labs and classrooms today’s instruction requires.

THE PROCESS

Assessment, Exploration, and Community Input.

 

Over the last two years, we assessed our oldest buildings, explored dozens of facility options, brought together focus groups and listening sessions, and gathered comprehensive feedback through two community-wide surveys. The idea that emerged from our community as the one most likely to address our budgetary needs and best prepare our kids for the future is building one new consolidated high school and moving our middle schools into our existing high schools.

We examined 11 different sites considering size, location, availability, environmental concerns, and reuse of an existing facility. Only one 40-acre site in the city was available and we were able to secure the right to purchase the Trane Headquarters site if a referendum is passed. A new high school on the Trane property will cost $194.7 million resulting in an $0.08 increase on the mill rate or $8.00 per $100,000 in home value.

THE SOLUTION

Middle and high schoolers – forward together

Investing in a new high school and upgrading middle school facilities by moving into our current high schools will immediately improve the learning environment for half of our 6,000-plus students.

A new high school will prepare students for the jobs of the future with up-to-date labs for advanced manufacturing, automotive technology, health science careers, and collaborative classroom spaces that reflect today’s workforce needs. We will be able to offer the electives students are asking for that we cannot currently provide, including courses in the culinary arts, automotive, engineering, electronics, construction, health sciences, and advanced placement classes.

Opening the current Central and Logan High School buildings as our updated middle schools better serves our students in grades 6-8. Transitioning our middle school students to our current high school buildings will be an immediate improvement to their educational environment with access to additional space, experiences, and programs.