Overview

The School District of La Crosse is forming a Facility Advisory Committee (FAC) that is tasked with developing recommendations for school district facility needs. The FAC is a citizen-based group that serves in an advisory capacity to the administration and School Board. 

The tasks of the FAC are to: 

• Review demographic data, enrollment projections, facilities assessments, best practices, and other factors that impact school district facilities.
• Integrate community feedback from surveys and other means into evaluations and recommendations.
• Serve as factual “key communicators” to the La Crosse community.
• Explore, evaluate, and refine potential elementary school arrangement and facilities consolidation options.
• Explore, evaluate, and refine middle and high school facilities improvements that result in comparable opportunities for students.
• Prepare and present a final report summarizing findings and advisory recommendations to the administration and school board by December 2023.

The following parameters will be considered by the FAC in making recommendations:

• Facilities that establish and maintain a learning environment that is physically, socially, and emotionally safe, welcoming, inclusive, respectful, and conducive to effective learning.
• Facilities that support innovative and best practices for teaching and learning, meet diverse learning needs, promote collaborative alignment with community resources, and are financially prudent and sustainable.
• Guidance from School Board and administrative policies: School Board policy Operational Expectation 12 – Facilities, Administrative policy 9100 – Facilities Development, Administrative policy 9800 – Retirement of Facilities.

The School District of La Crosse will make the FAC process as transparent as possible. All meeting information and related materials will be placed on the website with video recordings of meetings made available. FAC meetings will be open to the public, allowing community members to listen to the committee’s dialog; however, participation in conversations will be limited to FAC members. Non-committee members will be able to provide written feedback.

The FAC will consist of 25-30 participants selected to create a representative group that includes individuals from a range of backgrounds including parents, the business community, booster/athletics/arts groups, senior citizens, staff, realtors, La Crosse Public Education Foundation, local government, and legislators.

Administration will serve in an advisory capacity, responding to requests for information, and providing context, options, and analysis. The meetings will be facilitated by Dr. Joe Schroeder, an independent, Wisconsin-based, educational consultant.