2025 School Board Candidate Jeff Jackson
A February primary will be required to narrow the number of candidates down to six. The term of office for a school board member is three years beginning on Monday, April 28, 2025. Six candidates will appear on the April 1, 2025, spring election ballot for three school board spots.
SCHOOL BOARD QUESTIONNAIRE
Jeff Jackson

About You: Can you tell us about yourself — your professional background, family, education, and history in La Crosse?
I have lived in La Crosse for 13 years; my wife is from here and we moved back to be close to family.
My wife Amanda and I have 3 kids, who are all students in the District, a freshman at Logan High, a 7th grader at Logan Middle, and a 2nd grader at Hamilton/SOTA I.
Professionally I am an Area Manager who is responsible for the sales and operations of branch locations across 7 Midwestern states.
Reason for Candidacy: Why are you running for school board, and what motivates you to serve in this role?
I’d like to continue the work I started during my last term on the La Crosse Board of Education in 2023-2024.
I think as a School Board Member it is important to be a voice for the community, parents and teachers/staff at the board table.
I want to work with the community and District to set a long-term strategy to continue to update infrastructure, solve long term structural budget gaps and reduce the number of families choosing to enroll outside of the District of La Crosse, while ensuring we continue to provide equitable education for all.
Top Priorities: What do you believe are the top priorities the school board should address and why? How would you advocate for them?
Start the conversation with the community about what they would like the District to be in the future, with the declining enrollment and budget constraints, change will have to happen, what is most important to the community.
Educate the community about structural budget deficits the District is facing and how those impact our students and teachers.
Work with Administration to find creative ways to solve our budget challenges and continue to expand mental health resources for our students.
Public Schools: Why is public education important to you, and how do you see it shaping the future of our community?
Every child has a right to a quality education.
A solid educational foundation is an avenue to provide a catalyst for collective change in society, if we can improve school readiness, job readiness, all of that can have lasting impacts on society across a generation, from decreasing poverty rates, increasing workforce numbers to reducing crime.
Public schools are a cross section of society. They allow a safe environment for kids to learn how to work together with different personalities and backgrounds, they also allow a safe place for kids to learn and grow in a supportive structure catered toward their individual learning needs.
Declining Enrollment and Facilities: The district faces financial challenges due to declining enrollment and older buildings. What specific strategies would you propose to attract and retain students and address facility needs?
Retention/Attraction
We need to focus on building more family orientated housing, so much of the housing being built in La Crosse is 1-2 bedrooms and not conducive for families, the District and City need to work together to attract families.
Constant communication of the programs offered and academic success the District has each year, we have the most diverse programming on this side of the state and offer innovative programs that not enough people know about.
Focus on improving the competitiveness of our extra-curriculars.
Looking at updating some of our academic and extra-curricular facilities.
Building optimization at the Elementary level, not splitting teachers across buildings.
Consider consolidating the Middle Schools into the High Schools through remodels/additions to ensure the North and South footprints reaming while reducing our older facilities.
Continue to look at other ways to creatively make our older facilities work.
Community Engagement: How will you foster greater community involvement in decision-making to ensure transparency and shared ownership of the district’s challenges and successes?
I think constant communication is important, continuing community conversations and surveys as we navigate the future for the District will be integral. —
Childcare: Do you see a role for the district in addressing the childcare shortage? If so, what solutions would you propose?
Many of our students are behind from a motor skill and school readiness standpoint when they get to Kindergarten. Providing childcare with learning earlier will allow children to be prepared for the classroom which makes them more successful in school, this translates into better job readiness and the impacts can be seen through their entire life. This model not only offers stable childcare for working families but can help close the academic gap for many of our students. Arcadia WI has just approved a model that will provide childcare to district students.
Student Support: What programs or resources would you advocate for to enhance students’ academic achievement, mental health, and overall well-being?
It is important that the School Board continues to focus on holding the Administration accountable for the achievement gap.
As a District we need to ensure all programs are accessible to all students and families regardless of income.
The District needs to continue to gather feedback from students and parents regarding the current support available to them to ensure their academic success and social wellbeing.
Teacher Development and Retention: How would you support teachers in their professional development and address challenges related to workload, compensation and job satisfaction?
Teaching is one of the hardest professions. Our teachers are asked to inspire, educate, and mentor children on a daily basis. This can be incredibly challenging given the home and societal influences our kids experience every day. It is important that our teachers have professional development opportunities that support their needs.
Many of our teachers face fatigue and burnout, it’s important to have ongoing conversations on how to best support our teachers from a workload standpoint. I would especially like to focus on optimization and reducing the need for teachers to have to support multiple schools.
I support LEA’s right to negotiate for wage and benefits with the District to ensure we are fairly compensating both new and tenured teachers.
Wisconsin State Budget: What priorities would you advocate for in the Wisconsin state biennium budget to support the district’s needs?
Nearly every school district in the area has asked the local taxpayers to plug the operating budget via a referendum in the past few years. This budget gap does not come from poor financial management but stems from the State of WI underfunding public education. If the state, which sits on a large surplus, fully funded public education, then the local tax burden would be reduced by utilizing state funds.
Vouchers are another funding drain for public schools. When a family chooses a private education for their child that choice comes with a financial cost. With vouchers the private schools get the financial benefits of the public funding, but the public schools are still mandated to provide special education and transportation support to the private school students in the district boundaries. Thus, the District loses the revenue but still incurs an unfunded expense in these two categories. Lastly, private schools are not required to follow the same curriculum or provide the same level of reporting as the public schools. If public funding is provided, then private schools should have to meet the same curriculum and reporting requirements as public schools.
