MIDLAND, Texas — Communities in Schools of the Permian Basin has been providing support for students for the last 25 years, helping empower kids through any struggles they may face during their educational journey.
Following a long career as a justice-of-the-peace in Midland, native Midlander Billy Johnson is now the organization’s coordinator for a unique campus in Midland ISD.
If history has taught us anything, it is everything.
“I know the struggles of my parents, my grandparents," said Billy Johnson, campus coordinator for Communities in Schools of the Permian Basin at the Midland Alternative Program Campus within Midland ISD. "As an African American man, as a black man, knowing my history and always wanting to study my history – I didn’t want somebody just to tell me about my history – I wanted to study it.”
For Johnson, studying history is also a tangible process.
“When we say history, all of our history is not pleasant – and the things of the Edmund Pettus Bridge were certainly not pleasant – and so we’ve had the opportunity to visit the bridge twice and walk across that Edmund Pettus Bridge and have a Sunday morning prayer on that bridge in 2018," Johnson said.
That moment shared with family.
“To have my children understand ‘you know what, Daddy’s serious about that, so you know what, we need to understand this stuff so that we know about our people [and] we know about our culture – we won’t have to repeat that stuff,'" Johnson said.
Johnson also learned from one of his inspirations when meeting late Congressman John Lewis.
“Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and one thing he talked about was service in that we can all do something to give a little bit back, y’all give back…when you have an opportunity, don’t just let it squander, you want to make a difference, you make a difference," Johnson said.
Making a difference is exactly what Johnson is doing.
“MAP is the Midland Alternative Program, the alternative campus, the disciplinary campus within MISD," Johnson said. "All of these secondary campuses where they have discipline issues, the students are sent over there from seventh grade through graduation – through 12th grade.”
Johnson said their demographic is mostly Hispanic and Black.
“A lot of the Black and the Brown-skin students, we want them to see something positive," Johnson said. "A lot of them are coming from where they’re coming from. We want them to see a positive image, especially those young men – a positive male on that campus. That’s important that we see that they see what we’re doing.”
The goal is to get them back to their main campus.
“The more challenging it is the more excited I get, because I know there’s opportunity here – opportunity to do something, to help somebody that they might not have otherwise gotten that help," Johnson said.
Opportunity that is mutually beneficial.
“To see the smile on those faces, to have a parent call you – ‘hey thank you Mr. Billy, thank you for this, I really appreciate this, I really appreciate that,'" Johnson said. "And so, just to have the opportunity to help, and that’s a feeling that -- you just can’t explain that feeling.”
Johnson’s impact so far on students is anything but history.
“Means I’m not done yet," Johnson said. "I still enjoy working with kids, still trying to make a difference in our young people. So, basically what it says to me at this point in my life – I’m not done yet. I still got a lot of fire working with our young people [and] working with our families, so here I am.”
Johnson said the key word is community for CISPB, as they aim to build and strengthen the surrounding communities one student and one family at a time. He added that getting students prepared for life after high school is a priority, and that if a student needs help, do not be afraid to ask because that is what they are here for.