Tom Welch
While the current Central High was being built in the late 1960s, some students from the far south side of La Crosse attended Logan High School. Thomas Welch spent his freshman year at Logan Senior High despite being a kid from the south side. He enjoyed his experiences at Logan much more than he did Central, especially in academics.
Transcript
Location: 1450 Avon St.
Tom Welch: We have Logan across the street. There just wasn’t that bonding, mutual respect, or closeness among students at Central. I had the opportunity one of the few southsiders had an opportunity to attend school at Logan for tenth grade. La Crosse Central was overpopulated with students, they were building a new school, so one year, they took us people on the far southside, rather than going to Central on the south side, we got shipped all the way to the north side to go to Logan for our our tenth grade. And that’s where my perceptions of the north side totally changed. When you went to Logan you didn’t have as many separate– you went to class with the same kids more often. So you had a tighter bond with those classmates in Logan than you did at Central, so you felt closer to them.
I just remember competing with a gal in Logan for the best grades in geometry. I totally excelled in that math class, whereas when I was on the south side, particularly when you went to junior high school, they split the class up into seven levels based on academic performance. But, at Logan, I had an opportunity to excel in math and compete and try to be the number one in math. It raised my confidence, and it raised my self-esteem.
And so, um, that was big, and it was very positive, and recognizing that it was a great community up there. My name’s Tom Welch, uh, far southsider of La Crosse.