Johnny Winston Jr. looks at the coming school year
School year primer
School year primer
MMSD School Board Member
Johnny Winston Jr. in front of
the Doyle Administration
Building
Johnny Winston Jr. in front of
the Doyle Administration
Building
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 1 of 2
As we sit in the Avenue Bar talking over lunch, MMSD School Board Member Johnny Winston Jr. is a little tired.
It’s been a full summer of community activities including the Streetball block party he sponsors. He’s also adjusting
still to his new job with the Madison Fire Department as a fire investigator. Winston is excited about his daughter
starting at Kennedy Elementary School this fall. And then there is the Madison school board.
Serving on the Madison school board can easily blossom into a full-time job, although it is an elected, semi-
volunteer position. “I think people expect more from us as a board,” Winston said. “And I think there are people in
the community who don’t really know what the school board does. We are not the administration in terms of we do
not have an office in the Doyle Administration Building. We don’t make the day-to-day decisions. But we do make the
policy decisions as it relates to the school district. And we’re elected. We’re the only people who can be fired by the
people. Obviously with an elected position, people can choose to do that, they can choose their leadership. So that’s
what we do.”
About a year ago with the passage of the school referendum, it looked as if the Madison school district would be
on steady financial ground for three years, breathing space to plan and make some adjustments at the district.
However, the 2008 financial crisis and the depression of 2009 have shaken the state’s financial position and the
state’s 2009-2011 biennial budget. In order to balance the state budget, the state cut the school aids that the Madison
school district expected to receive. Unfortunately by the time they got the news, they were already locked into their
2009-2010 budget.
Part 1 of 2
As we sit in the Avenue Bar talking over lunch, MMSD School Board Member Johnny Winston Jr. is a little tired.
It’s been a full summer of community activities including the Streetball block party he sponsors. He’s also adjusting
still to his new job with the Madison Fire Department as a fire investigator. Winston is excited about his daughter
starting at Kennedy Elementary School this fall. And then there is the Madison school board.
Serving on the Madison school board can easily blossom into a full-time job, although it is an elected, semi-
volunteer position. “I think people expect more from us as a board,” Winston said. “And I think there are people in
the community who don’t really know what the school board does. We are not the administration in terms of we do
not have an office in the Doyle Administration Building. We don’t make the day-to-day decisions. But we do make the
policy decisions as it relates to the school district. And we’re elected. We’re the only people who can be fired by the
people. Obviously with an elected position, people can choose to do that, they can choose their leadership. So that’s
what we do.”
About a year ago with the passage of the school referendum, it looked as if the Madison school district would be
on steady financial ground for three years, breathing space to plan and make some adjustments at the district.
However, the 2008 financial crisis and the depression of 2009 have shaken the state’s financial position and the
state’s 2009-2011 biennial budget. In order to balance the state budget, the state cut the school aids that the Madison
school district expected to receive. Unfortunately by the time they got the news, they were already locked into their
2009-2010 budget.
“We took a big hit in terms of our state aid,” Winston said. “We find ourselves with a $2.8 million deficit. And that’s going into the school year.
And because we had balanced our budget, voted and approved our budget in early May, we found that we had locked ourselves in to not making any
changes relative to teachers and teacher contracts. However, the state budget was put together in early June and unfortunately we find ourselves
$2.8 million in the hole coming up on a new school year. We’re able to balance the budget by doing some things budgetarily, but any time you cut $2.8
million while we aren’t cutting programs of services to students, the impact is still going to be felt throughout the district.”
Even though the school district finalizes its budget in October based on the third Friday in September count of official student enrollments, the district
is locked in regardless of the student count.
And adding insult to injury is the state’s handling of the TIF money that the school district counted on last year and this year to fill some budgetary
holes. “The state also saw the TIF — tax incremental finance — monies as additional revenues,” Winston said. “So we were not able to use those
funds per their rules. So we took a hit. We would exceed the revenue caps with that money. It was definitely something that as a board we were very
disappointed about. We wrote our legislators. Unfortunately, they said there was nothing they could do. We had received a verbal commitment from
the state that our school district would take a 10 percent reduction and that reduction became 15 percent. It was disappointing and it continues to be.”
The Madison school district is receiving American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds, the federal stimulus money. But the ARRA funds
have a maintenance of effort clause attached to them so that they cannot be used as a substitute for things that the district would normally do. In
essence, they cannot be used to fill budget holes.
“So whatever we do for the next two years is going to have to be cut in two years or absorbed within the district,” Winston said. “The district
does have a plan and we voted on that plan last week in terms of the American Recover and Reinvestment Act. Some of the things that the district is
going to be doing will be developing community liaison and parent education with the Latino parents. We’re going to be doing some things in terms of
teacher training. We’re also going to be doing a lot of professional development and learning. So these are things that enhance the district, but people
might not be able to see them on a daily basis. That’s unfortunate, but it’s what the rules are in terms of the funds and we have to comply with the
rules.”
There will be other new funds coming down the pike through the U.S. Dept. of Education. Winston would like to see the district do more in terms
of alternative programming. “Those seem to be very successful for the kids who are involved in them,” Winston said about alternative programs.
“But obviously the funds are limited and there is only so much that we can do with the funds that we do have. Maybe President Obama’s Race to the
Top funds will somehow make their way to Madison. I’m hopeful for those funds. The district knows that it has to be more aggressive in terms of its
grant writing, in terms of it working to get additional funds, whether that is federal funds or state funds and I’m confident that is happening.”
And because we had balanced our budget, voted and approved our budget in early May, we found that we had locked ourselves in to not making any
changes relative to teachers and teacher contracts. However, the state budget was put together in early June and unfortunately we find ourselves
$2.8 million in the hole coming up on a new school year. We’re able to balance the budget by doing some things budgetarily, but any time you cut $2.8
million while we aren’t cutting programs of services to students, the impact is still going to be felt throughout the district.”
Even though the school district finalizes its budget in October based on the third Friday in September count of official student enrollments, the district
is locked in regardless of the student count.
And adding insult to injury is the state’s handling of the TIF money that the school district counted on last year and this year to fill some budgetary
holes. “The state also saw the TIF — tax incremental finance — monies as additional revenues,” Winston said. “So we were not able to use those
funds per their rules. So we took a hit. We would exceed the revenue caps with that money. It was definitely something that as a board we were very
disappointed about. We wrote our legislators. Unfortunately, they said there was nothing they could do. We had received a verbal commitment from
the state that our school district would take a 10 percent reduction and that reduction became 15 percent. It was disappointing and it continues to be.”
The Madison school district is receiving American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds, the federal stimulus money. But the ARRA funds
have a maintenance of effort clause attached to them so that they cannot be used as a substitute for things that the district would normally do. In
essence, they cannot be used to fill budget holes.
“So whatever we do for the next two years is going to have to be cut in two years or absorbed within the district,” Winston said. “The district
does have a plan and we voted on that plan last week in terms of the American Recover and Reinvestment Act. Some of the things that the district is
going to be doing will be developing community liaison and parent education with the Latino parents. We’re going to be doing some things in terms of
teacher training. We’re also going to be doing a lot of professional development and learning. So these are things that enhance the district, but people
might not be able to see them on a daily basis. That’s unfortunate, but it’s what the rules are in terms of the funds and we have to comply with the
rules.”
There will be other new funds coming down the pike through the U.S. Dept. of Education. Winston would like to see the district do more in terms
of alternative programming. “Those seem to be very successful for the kids who are involved in them,” Winston said about alternative programs.
“But obviously the funds are limited and there is only so much that we can do with the funds that we do have. Maybe President Obama’s Race to the
Top funds will somehow make their way to Madison. I’m hopeful for those funds. The district knows that it has to be more aggressive in terms of its
grant writing, in terms of it working to get additional funds, whether that is federal funds or state funds and I’m confident that is happening.”
