Jill Schams and Jesse Martinez, the co-presidents of the La Crosse Education Association (LEA) — or the teachers’ union — in studio, discussing the district’s $53.5 million referendum on the November ballot, school funding in general and how a cellphone ban in schools has worked.

Schams is a K-5 music teacher at Southern Bluffs Elementary School, while Martinez teaches 7th grade math and social studies — and Spanish emersion — at Logan Middle School.

We began the show with a quick overview, but also getting to know Schams a bit, as she's never been on before and she teaches music, which is fascinating to some talk show hosts. 

After that (8:20), we got into the La Crosse School District's $53.5 million referendum and whether LEA supports it. The overview of that plan would be to:

Create eight new classrooms and a new gym at State Road Elem.

Tear down the Hogan Administrative site.

Close Emerson and Spence elementaries and move those students to a new school, built on the Hogan Administrative site.

Close Hintgen, consolidate most of those students to State Road's school.

We also talked about school funding in general interweaved into that conversation.

Lastly (33:15), we discussed the cellphone ban that Logan MS had last year, how that went. The school, along with Logan High School have cellphone bans this year.