District overview
Winters Joint Unified School District
How Winters JUSD is paid for, who decides, and what is being built
Where does the money come from, and why is a bond on the ballot?
Winters Joint Unified is a small district of about 1,668 students in five schools in Winters, in Yolo County, with part of its territory reaching into Solano County. Like almost every California district it is funded by the Local Control Funding Formula, which pays a base amount per student plus extra for English learners, low-income students and foster youth. The crucial detail is that the formula pays on average daily attendance, not on how many children are enrolled: in the first reporting period of 2025-26 the district enrolled 1,668 students but was paid on 1,572.60, an attendance yield of 94.28%. Staff projected $23,149,271 of formula revenue for 2026-27, and showed the board that the same year would bring $22,685,663 if enrolment and attendance stayed flat rather than growing. The district's day-to-day finances are in order on the official record: it filed positive certifications on both its 2025-26 First Interim report in December 2025 and its Second Interim report in March 2026, and its auditor gave an unmodified opinion on the 2024-25 financial statements and on all four bond funds. Buildings are a separate story. California does not fund school construction from the operating formula, so Winters has gone to its voters four times - Measures R in 2014, D in 2016, P in 2018 and W in 2020. In February 2026 the board was told Measure W's construction money would be exhausted that summer. In June it voted to ask voters for $29,900,000 more, as Measure B on the November 3, 2026 ballot.
The formula pays for attendance, not enrolment
1,668 students enrolled on October 1, 2025 but 1,572.60 average daily attendance. The 94.28% yield was better than the 93.86% a year earlier, but the roughly 95-student gap is revenue the district does not receive.
The student population is growing, not shrinking
A demographic study the board commissioned and heard in March 2026 projects enrolment topping 1,900 by 2032, with about 200 of that from homes not yet built in the Farmstead and North Winters developments. This year's kindergarten class of 118 is the biggest since before the pandemic.
Projected 2026-27 formula revenue: $23,149,271
The alternative flat-enrolment projection staff showed the board was $22,685,663, about $463,608 lower. The same briefing listed declining enrolment and deficit spending among the risks to California school budgets.
Buildings are paid for by local bonds, and the current one is spent
Measure W money ran out in summer 2026. Measure B asks for $29,900,000 at about $49 per $100,000 of assessed value, raising roughly $1,600,000 a year, and needs 55% of votes to pass.
The operating budget is certified healthy
A positive certification on the 2025-26 First Interim report means the district expects to meet its obligations this year and the next two. The 2024-25 audit and all four bond audits drew unmodified opinions, the cleanest result available.
None of this says the district is in financial trouble. Its interim certification is positive, its audits are clean, its attendance yield improved between 2024-25 and 2025-26, and both of its 2025-26 interim reports were certified positive. The bond measure is about buildings, which California deliberately funds separately from teaching, and the refinancing the board approved in 2026 lowers rather than raises what taxpayers already owe. What the public record does not establish is what the 2026-27 budget actually totals, because the district describes it only inside board minutes and does not publish the budget document.
Where the district stands
The district's five schools reported 1,634 students between them on their 2024-25 report cards: 405 at Waggoner, 363 at Rominger, 367 at Winters Middle, 479 at Winters High and 20 at Wolfskill.
California pays districts on attendance, not enrolment, so this is the number the funding formula actually uses.
Up from 93.86% at the same point in 2024-25. Every point of attendance is money: the gap between enrolment and attendance is about 95 students the district does not get paid for.
Below the 1,564 funded attendance staff had estimated at Second Interim, and below the 1,572.60 reported at the first reporting period. From a machine transcript, as no minutes are published for this meeting.
This is the First Interim assumption. The same presentation showed $22,685,663 if enrolment and attendance stay flat instead of growing - about $463,608 less.
Down 2.3% from $30,081,557.27 in 2023-24 estimated actuals. This is the newest budget the district publishes as a document, and it covers unrestricted and restricted money together, so it is larger than the funding-formula figure alone.
Resolution No. 1245-26 budgets all of it to certificated teacher salaries and benefits. It is about a fifth of the district's formula revenue.
Measure B. It would add about $49 a year per $100,000 of assessed property value and raise about $1,600,000 a year, and needs 55% approval.
School-site figure including restricted money. The other campuses report $9,231.22 at Waggoner, $9,127.61 at Rominger, $9,680.29 at Winters Middle and $17,949.34 at Wolfskill, where 20 students make the per-student cost high.
Comparison only. Winters High's unrestricted figure is $9,942.28, about 11% below this; Winters Middle's is $7,755.38.
Against $86,335 statewide. Site averages range from $79,851.31 at Waggoner to $101,859.00 at Wolfskill.
Calculated. Minutes exist for October 2025 to February 2026 and for June and August 2026. Nothing is published for the five meetings from March 5 to May 21, 2026, for June 11, 2026, or yet for August 20, September 3 and September 17, 2026.
Normally the first and third Thursday at 6:00 p.m., with four exceptions the calendar names, plus a December organisational meeting.
King Consulting told the board enrolment would top 1,900 by the end of its seven-year projection, with about 200 of the increase from homes not yet built. Stated as 'topping 1,900', so this is a threshold the study crosses rather than a precise forecast.
Reported as rising this year while overall enrolment dipped slightly. Excludes preschool. From a machine transcript, parts of which were produced by a fallback speech model.
Major projects
Measure B: $29.9 million school facilities bond
On the ballot for November 3, 2026; needs 55% approvalThe district's building money has run out. Measure W, approved in 2020, was the last of four bonds, and in February 2026 staff told the board its construction funds would be exhausted that summer. Rather than wait, the board voted 5-0 in June to ask voters for $29,900,000 under Resolution No. 1243-26. The project list named in the measure covers repairing or replacing leaky roofs, deteriorating plumbing and sewer systems and outdated heating and air conditioning, modernising classrooms and restrooms, health, safety, accessibility and security improvements, and upgrades to technology, wiring, athletic fields, parking and grounds. The measure carries a board-appointed citizens' oversight committee and annual independent audits, the same accountability structure that produced unmodified audits on all four existing bonds. If it fails, no identified funding source exists for the list.
- Board told Measure W construction funds will be exhausted in summer 2026; a community survey on future financing is flagged
- Board adopts Resolution No. 1243-26 ordering a bond election, 5-0
- Deadline for filing the resolution with the county
- Vote-by-mail ballots begin going out to Yolo County voters
- Election day; 55% approval required
Funding
General obligation bonds repaid from property taxes within the district, levying about $49 per year per $100,000 of assessed value and raising roughly $1,600,000 a year while outstanding. State law caps a unified district at $60 per $100,000. California provides no operating-formula money for construction, which is why this goes to voters.
Career-technical buildings at Winters High and the agriculture site
Stalled on funding: the Winters High project lost its state funding route in June 2026, leaving two fallback optionsWinters High runs career-technical pathways in agriculture, engineering and hospitality or culinary, and the district spent 2025-26 trying to get state money for the buildings to house them. In October 2025 the board passed four resolutions authorising applications to the state's Career Technical Education Facilities Program, aiming at up to $3 million of reimbursement for a robotics and culinary building - the T building - and at a proposed new 2,700 square foot career-technical lab at the agriculture site with two covered outdoor work areas, needing $3 million from the state and a $3 million district match. The applications went in on December 1, 2025. In June 2026 the district's consultants disclosed an oversight of their own: because the district had already received state funding for the T building, it cannot also draw Career Technical Education Facilities Program money. The board was left with two options - push the agriculture-site application forward, or apply for a reserve of new-construction eligibility through a small school district programme loan.
- Board briefed on the $3 million applications and the proposed agriculture-site lab
- Resolutions Nos. 1231-25 to 1234-25 authorise the state applications
- Applications submitted to the state
- Consultants disclose the T building is ineligible; options A and B presented
- Facilities Master Plan update listed as an action item
Funding
Sought from the state Career Technical Education Facilities Program with a $3 million district match for the agriculture-site lab. The Winters High T building is now ineligible for that programme. Measure B, if it passes, is the district's other route to capital money.
Waggoner transitional kindergarten building and Winters Middle School kitchen
Complete: the kitchen addition and the summer 2026 Waggoner work both finished before the school year beganTwo projects ran through the whole year of board meetings. The transitional kindergarten building at Waggoner Elementary, tracked at nearly every meeting from October 2025, was expected to finish in the first week of November 2025 and was followed by landscaping and a new drop-off zone. The Winters Middle School kitchen addition finished over summer 2026. The same summer brought a heating and air conditioning replacement, wood decay remediation, an administration building roof replacement, an emergency access connection to the parking lot and four new drinking fountains at Waggoner, plus new asphalt on the middle school blacktop. Earlier in the year the board ratified completion of the Shirley Rominger Intermediate roofing project.
- Board briefed on the Waggoner TK project and the Winters Middle kitchen
- TK building expected to complete in the first week of November
- Rominger roofing project completion ratified
- Kitchen addition and Waggoner summer works reported complete
- Next facilities master plan workshop
Funding
Local bond measures R, D, P and W, whose construction money ran out in summer 2026, supplemented by the Capital Facilities Fund 25 developer-fee account, which grew by $693,469.83 in 2024-25. The district publishes no project-by-project cost for these works.
Graduate Profile and the Winters High Capstone
In implementation: graduation requirements revised in June 2026 and the district's innovation plans now being monitoredThe district spent 2025-26 defining what it wants every graduate to be able to do and then changing school structures to match. The superintendent presented a Graduate Profile outreach and strategy update in November 2025 built on teacher and student input, and a Winters High School Junior Board of students presented its own findings on classroom engagement in February 2026. In June 2026 the board approved a new Capstone course description together with revised Winters High School graduation requirements. The board's August 2026 governance workshop moved from planning to monitoring, reviewing the progress metrics attached to the district's Innovation Plans. Related work includes the revised Multilingual Learner Master Plan approved in February 2026 and the FLEX period Winters Middle built into its day.
- Graduate Profile outreach and strategy update presented
- Revised Multilingual Learner Master Plan approved
- Capstone course and revised Winters High graduation requirements approved
- Governance workshop reviews progress-monitoring metrics for the Innovation Plans
- Project-based learning update from Winters Middle teachers listed for information
Funding
Local Control Funding Formula money through the Local Control and Accountability Plan, plus redesign grants the superintendent mentioned in December 2025. No separate budget for the Graduate Profile work is published.
Recent news
Winters Joint Unified runs the SchoolBlocks content system. Its approved board minutes are published as dated PDFs in a public Google Drive folder tree with one folder per school year, linked from the district's own Board Agendas and Minutes page, and the single currently posted upcoming agenda sits on that same page. Board recordings are individual Google Drive video links on a separate Board Recordings block. This page reads the minutes and the posted agenda directly, together with machine transcripts of the official recordings produced by the district's own video files, the 2024-25 School Accountability Report Cards, the district's 2024-2028 Technology Plan, the posted bond and district audits, the most recent posted budget and accountability plan, and the Yolo County elections pages for the November 2026 ballot. Historical agendas and board packets are published only on the district's GAMUT/Simbli portal, whose terms prohibit automated collection, and are deliberately not read. The minutes folders, the agenda block and the recordings block are re-read around each meeting on the board's approved calendar.
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