The Capital Times

On a recent Monday, Riley Morin posed a pointed question to 10 students in the room during the last class period of the day at La Follette High School. “What’s one problem in your community that bothers you the most?” she asked. The students shouted out responses: drugs, fights, guns and violence in general. “Are these things that you all are seeing at your age group and level, or is it people older than you?” interjected Aaron Broadwater, another adult in the room. The students were nearly unanimous: These problems took root earlier, starting with middle schoolers. “So why do you think it’s an issue in school?” Morin pressed. “Because it’s the same people who do it in school that do it out of school,” a student replied. Morin and Broadwater continued to pepper the group with questions, drawing out candid answers. They nudged the class to think not only about avoiding those behaviors themselves, but how they could encourage peers to do the same. The forthright conversation on the pressures students face in school isn’t the typical kind of course material for most classes, Morin and Broadwater acknowledge. But in this class on Madison’s east side, frank discussions happen every week by design. The class is part of Improve Your Tomorrow, a program started in the Madison school district this school year. Improve Your Tomorrow’s mission is to help more young men of color enroll in and complete college by providing mentorship, academic support and leadership development training to middle schoolers and high schoolers. The program serves students with a grade point average of 2.0 or less, and students otherwise struggling academically or behaviorally. https://lnkd.in/gmvNV3kD

In the 2010s, Wisconsin’s childcare industry was in freefall, and the state lost about 2,000 programs from 2013 to 2019. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and childcare workers were asked to continue serving families, the industry started to stabilize as the rest of the world seemed to collapse. Wisconsin providers and advocates chalk that resilience up to state funding that childcare programs started receiving during the pandemic. That funding, originally from federal pandemic relief money, went directly to providers to help them stay afloat. Since the funding first started in March 2020 under a program called Child Care Counts, the number of providers in the state increased by about 200 overall. “We actually arrested and stopped the decline of childcare, stabilized it, and the numbers are starting to go back up. That’s pretty wild,” said Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Secretary-designee Jeff Pertl. “You sure would not think that COVID was going to be the time where we were going to figure out, gee, how do we take better care of this industry, right? And we did, and that’s a huge lesson for the state to learn,” said Ruth Schmidt, executive director of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA). However, this funding has been clawed back over the last six years amid a tumultuous relationship between a Democratic governor and Republican-controlled Legislature, and the last remaining dollars will expire at the end of June. Many worry the loss in funding will lead to mass closures of childcare centers, a spike in already-high tuition rates for parents, and disruptions to the state’s workforce and economy. The impending cliff is prompting lawmakers and advocates to think about what’s next, and many see the coming months as an inflection point to rewrite the state’s childcare system. https://lnkd.in/gxh5aExF

BREAKING | American Players Theatre in Spring Green has won a Tony Award. It is the first Wisconsin theater to do so in the award’s history. The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards, held every June, honor excellence in live theater performance, design, production and more. The Special Tony Award for Regional Theatre is voted on by the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association. The award comes with a $25,000 monetary grant and has been regularly awarded to one theater company each year since 1976. Until 2013, the Regional Tony went exclusively to theaters outside of New York City. The Muny in St. Louis won in 2025; Wilma Theater in Philadelphia won in 2024. “We are so grateful,” Brenda DeVita, APT’s artistic director, said on Tuesday morning. “It’s humbling and beautiful. So many people who work here could have their own Tony, and they stayed here and helped tell theater stories to people in rural Wisconsin. “They deserve great stories. They deserve a Tony for believing in this place all this time.” https://lnkd.in/ggk_DGki

Amid major growth in numbers of visitors and the deterioration of its hallmark conservatory, Olbrich Botanical Gardens is embarking on its biggest redesign since the 1990s. Plans include the renovation of the Bolz Conservatory, the establishment of two new outdoor event spaces and repositioning of the parking lot so visitors would see greenspace instead of asphalt as they enter Madison’s horticultural haven. Olbrich Gardens director Tanya Zastrow said visitorship to the east side garden has increased by 35% in the past five years. She said the increase was partly spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, when people turned to nature when unable to gather indoors. “It was a really hard time for everybody, but it also ignited the love of the outdoors and gardens for people,” she said. “Last year we had around 390,000 people visit the gardens.” Board of Park Commissioners Chandra Miller Fienen said the timeline for the renovations is fluid, with the earliest aspects of the project implemented in the next two years and some over the span of two decades. https://lnkd.in/gCCgr8hv

After years of delays, the Madison Public Market (Madison Public Market Foundation) now has an official grand opening date: July 23. Market CEO Keisha Harrison estimated that roughly half (14-16) of the market’s 28 main spaces will be open by that date in the building at 202 N. First St., with more likely under construction. The market wants to find “that perfect balance between getting the merchants up and going and letting them get their stride,” said market spokesman Matt Boatright-Simon, “while not diminishing the impact of a grand opening.” Some merchants will likely be open even sooner, and Harrison said the market will work with them to make that happen. “We’ll probably also have some pop-up market type events in the event space, and maybe outside of the parking lot and on the patio areas,” she said. From a grassroots effort by a group of farmers in the early 2000s to a nearly $24 million construction project beset, in recent years, by persistent delays, the Madison Public Market is intended to be both an economic driver and a community gathering space. https://lnkd.in/g8iHr3Kj

After nearly four years at the helm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said she feels a bit like the thousands of students wearing caps and gowns who just graduated at Camp Randall Stadium. “For me, this is a time that is filled with very, very mixed emotions,” Mnookin said at a campus meeting this month. “I feel tremendous sadness to be saying goodbye to Madison. I'm excited about what's coming next for me. Frankly, I'm also a little daunted. It's going to provide plenty of challenge. And I'm going to be cheering this university on for the rest of my life.” Mnookin will soon leave Wisconsin’s flagship public university to become president of Columbia University in New York. Her last day at UW-Madison is Saturday. Mnookin oversaw more than 51,000 students and 28,000 faculty and staff at the state’s preeminent research institution, which has a nearly $5 billion budget. How she performed depends on who you ask. The Cap Times interviewed a dozen students, faculty, staff and other community members about her tenure, as well as Mnookin herself. https://lnkd.in/gtnfZbMv

A Madison surgical center is celebrating medical milestones and lives saved through organ transplants as surgeons elsewhere in Wisconsin are worrying about a recent drop in the number of registered donors. For the first time in 14 years, the number of organ donations from deceased people has dropped nationwide. As of January, more than 100,000 people in the United States were waiting for organ transplants, according to the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations. In Wisconsin, 1,500 people are waiting for organ transplants. And while the Wisconsin Department of Health Services says the average monthly removals from the state’s organ registry remain consistent with expectations, Dr. Matt Cooper, chief of transplantation and director of Solid Organ Transplant at FROEDTERT & MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN, said he is concerned that about 3,000 Wisconsinites removed themselves from the state’s organ registry over the last year — including nearly 900 in August alone. “Every individual that potentially registers to be an organ donor, that becomes an organ donor, has the potential of saving eight lives through organ transplant and hundreds of lives through tissue and corneal transplants,” Cooper said in an interview with the Cap Times. “Every individual who either chooses not to register or takes their name off of the registry means that those potential eight people who need the organ won't receive it.” https://lnkd.in/gKzxM2j9

The Goodman Community Center on Madison’s east side recently welcomed a new president, Chris Talton. An Atlanta native, Talton has spent the past decade working in south central Wisconsin as a vice president for Goodwill — one of the largest incorporated nonprofits in the country — managing regional stores, government contracts and donation centers. Two weeks after his first day, Talton toured the center with a Cap Times reporter and outlined his vision. While still getting used to the center’s buildings and ins and outs, Talton highlighted Goodman’s sustainability, partnerships, literacy programs and dynamic space for generations in the Madison community. Talton reflected on his upbringing and attending after-school programs at a community center in an Atlanta neighborhood, nestled between now gentrified housing developments. Talton likened it to the structure of the Bayview Community Center near downtown Madison, where the center was so close you could throw a football to the building. He fondly recalled his experience playing sports and the impact of having a safe space to congregate as a youth in the community — something he hopes to provide for others at the Goodman Community Center. https://lnkd.in/g7DXbH5N

No matter where in Wisconsin you are, you’re likely not far from a park, trail, forest or body of water touched by the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. If you live in Stoughton, the funding helped to develop your local riverwalk along the Yahara River. If you're walking along the shores of Lake Monona, you can see the historic San Damiano property acquired and preserved with help from the grant program. If you’re a birdwatcher, you may have spotted a crane or egret on part of the Cherokee Marsh acquired with help from Knowles-Nelson. Maybe you’ve hiked or biked on the Ice Age Trail, or visited School House Bluff Park in Mazomanie, or Military Ridge State Trail in Verona. All benefited from the fund. Since its inception in 1989, the Knowles-Nelson program helped preserve over 750,000 acres across all 72 counties in Wisconsin, including at least roughly 17,600 acres in Dane County. Notable projects statewide include increasing the footprint of Devil’s Lake State Park, rebuilding Eagle Tower at Peninsula State Park and acquiring 70,000 acres of what’s now known as the Pelican River Forest for conservation. But money for Knowles-Nelson will dry up after June 30, because the Republican-controlled Legislature declined to renew funding in the final weeks of the legislative session this spring. https://lnkd.in/gucTvb2a

Vern Stenman said Warner Park, the field on which the Madison Mallards and Night Mares play, was built backward. For “most stadiums of this level, home plate would literally be in center field, so the sun isn’t setting in the eyes of most people,” said Stenman, the president of Big Top Events, which owns both collegiate summer teams. At Warner Park, “the sun sets in the eyes of the fans.” Stenman hopes a new art installation by Madison industrial designer Adrian Pere, called “Light Wings,” will help solve that problem. “Light Wings” will hang over the stadium’s grandstands and the Busch Light Duck Blind, a section of the stadium where patrons can get unlimited food and drinks. Last week, Pere, Stenman and others put up one of the panels as a trial run. At night, they planned to test it with lights. The installation will serve as the backdrop for a nightly light show during the season. They plan to have the entire installation hung by mid-May. The Mallards season opener is on May 25, and the Night Mares play their first home game on June 9. The piece spans 20,000 square feet and is made up of over 40,000 pieces of fabric, tied onto netting in a pattern that Adrian Pere of Peredesign described as feathers that form wings. The piece — which is suspended high enough not to obstruct the sightline of the field — will cover about 80% of the seating area. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gzBrn-64