Classrooms to be full next month, Central principal retiring

La Crosse’s public schools should all be back to normal in-person classes by the first week of April. 

At Monday night’s school board meeting, superintendent Aaron Engel announced that middle and high schools are planning to have students in class five days a week as of April 6th. 

Those students have been back in classrooms only a couple of days a week since February, while the lower grades returned to school in January. 

Engel says the district will continue to monitor the number of COVID cases in the community, in case changes have to be made in the schedule.   

The La Crosse school board itself is back to in-person meetings, after a year of meeting by Zoom.  The board still meets at the Hogan Administration Center, but meetings are in the gym instead of the auditorium, to allow for more social distancing.  

In other school news, Central High School’s principal is preparing to retire at the end of the school year. 

Troy McDonald is a 1982 graduate of Central, and has taught at several area schools during his career, including a few years as basketball coach at Logan. 

McDonald recently announced that Central was replacing its ‘Red Raiders’ nickname with the name ‘River Hawks.’