La Crosse school referendum campaign makes headlines through much of 2022

A school district plan to merge La Crosse’s two public high schools into one turned into one of the area’s biggest news stories in the past year. 

In November, a referendum for building a new school on Trane Company property was voted down, by a 70 per cent majority.  Much of the opposition came from the north side of La Crosse, where Logan High School would be shut down under the plan.  Retiring city council member Andrea Richmond offered another suggestion.

“If the population is declining in La Crosse, I don’t believe it is, but don’t take the high schools and make ’em middle schools,” Richmond said. “Build a middle school.”

The La Crosse district continues to study new options to deal with building costs and a shrinking enrollment, in the wake of the referendum defeat.

Although the referendum lost by a 2-to-1 margin, it did have support from a group called Vote Yes for La Crosse Schools.  Former county board chair Tara Johnson backed that group, saying La Crosse has to get away from the two high school tradition.

“This community may at one time have been a two high school community,” Johnson said in October. “We are now a one high school community. That is the reality of birth rates, the reality of enrollments. While the county has grown, other school districts have seen much of that growth.”

People who favor the merger idea argued that the current Logan High building would still be used as a middle school, if Logan and Central High were to be moved into one building.