Education
La Crosse School superintendent Engel on hiccup with Lincoln sale, what to do with 3 other elementary buildings
La Crosse Schools superintendent, Dr. Aaron Engel, joins to discuss the process of closing three elementary schools, a hiccup in the sale of the Lincoln building and what kind of funding public education is seeing as the state budget is being crafted.
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We began the show talking quick about how often Engel and neighboring school districts communicate and what they get done with those talks. Then we moved to state budget, as the Joint Finance Committee appears to not be coming to the middle on negotiations for things like special education funding — for public schools, at least.
After that, with the Hogan Administration building coming down and a new elementary being built, Engel spoke about the process for the three elementary schools that will close in the next two years and what might be done with those buildings.
The district had already gone through this process with the Lincoln Middle School building that was sold in January of 2024 but there appears to be some hiccups in that transaction. Engel talks about possible grant funding not coming through for the company that’s going to build affordable housing there and the entire process will be delayed.
Libertarian Guy
June 17, 2025 at 5:26 pm
That is some “hiccup” Aaron. You sold the school (a public asset) to a developer who needed tax/grant money to convert it to “affordable housing” (a taxpayer subsidized project) to save the district money, which has now fallen through months after the district expected to unload the cost of this building from the tax paying public. You did not mention ideas or plans to actually get this deal completed. You have 3 more schools to sell to save money, but are uncertain about selling because the land may be needed in an uncertain future so the schools may stay in the district after all, and you are tearing down the Hogan Admin Center (another waste) only to build a new school in its place at great cost with borrowed money adding additional cost for debt service, and you still have not solved the operational budget short fall by downsizing staff or other means. You are an incompetent manager of district finances and you have no concerns about increasing taxes on residents of the district. You also bear no personal tax consequences as a resident of Trempealeau, WI.
walden
June 18, 2025 at 11:45 pm
Libertarian Guy sums it up well.
I would only point out the error in Solem’s statement to the effect that Lincoln was sold in January 2024. If the deal hasn’t yet closed and the District has not been paid in full, then Lincoln has not been sold.
After 18 months, I’m not sure why an alternative buyer is not being sought. If (big if) the District was smart enough to negotiate an earnest money deposit they should declare the buyer to be in default, keep the deposit, and move on to another buyer (the flip side of the $300,000 the District lost to American Standard when it forfeited its deposit for failing to purchase the American Standard property). I guess sound business practices don’t apply when there is taxpayer money available to be squandered.
I would also add the School Board’s failure to engage in District operations and their secrecy pact enables this mismanagement.
Libertarian guy
June 19, 2025 at 5:29 pm
Walden,
You say it well. If we knew each other, I bet we would be friends.
Thanks for reminding the public (or at least a few people that read these comments) how Aaron Engel completely wasted $300,000 of taxpayer earnest money by submitting an offer to purchase the Trane Company property prior to obtaining voter approval for his $200 million boondoggle wisely turned down by the public. This is just one more reason I would love to see Aaron Engel resign as superintendent.
Sam
June 21, 2025 at 2:43 am
Looks like Lincoln is the new administration building.
Bill
June 21, 2025 at 7:56 am
So the Lincoln buyer is lookin for “some grant funding.”
All kinds of grant money floating around these days
These Masters Degree educators are not very good at multi-million dollar real estate deals. They should stop pretending that they are.