One by one, student-teachers and high school students shared their experiences to members of the Arkansas State Board of Education during its visit to Pine Bluff on Thursday.
“This yearlong residency has allowed us to gain real, hands-on classroom experience, while also being compensated for the hard work and dedication that I do every day,” said Cina Boyd, a student-teacher taking part in a teaching residency through the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. “What makes the Pine Bluff School District special is the commitment to supporting not only students but educators as well.”
Benjamin Dixon, who’s completing his degree in mathematics education, said he’s learning more about how the residency program benefits him.
“Whenever I first came into the program, I was really intimidated about how I was going to effectively work in the classroom,” he said. “It’s really built my confidence over the last few months, working with the school district, and I was able to build those connections with the students to get the best outcome from them as well as myself.”
Zariaunna Moore, Destiny Jones and Christopher Phillips all spoke about their courses of study within the district’s Career and Technical Education program. Moore is learning cosmetology, Jones is studying banking and accounting, and Phillips participates in the Future Business Leaders of America.
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Moore said she’s learned money management and customer service skills through her chosen field.
“With these skills and techniques, I have purchased my own vehicle at 17 without a co-signer, and I paid all my STEM class expenses, lifting the financial burden from my family,” she said.
The testimonies were part of the district’s presentation on its latest achievements, even though the Board of Education came to Pine Bluff to visit two districts that have received F letter grades from the Arkansas Department of Education using the state’s recently adopted accountability formula. The board meeting was held inside the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative.
Pine Bluff School District Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree had just outlined a long list of accomplishments in the three years she’s been at the helm of the district, including a successful millage campaign toward construction of a new Pine Bluff High School at its original location, increasing the percentage of staff members who are licensed to teach; achieving incremental gains in academic proficiency; and moving two elementary schools up a grade letter to D in the accountability report.
“The accomplishments that Dr. Barbaree has made doubles as our collective accomplishments,” Assistant Superintendent Phillip Carlock said. “When we look at the initiatives of the financial literacy with the banks that have come out, when we look at percentage of teachers who are licensed and certified, when we look at partnerships and programming with UAPB and how we are supporting our resident teachers so they can be on track to be hired so we can have more certified teachers in the district — which equals better instruction in the classroom and better support for our students — I can say I fully support Dr. Barbaree and her leadership in making sure those things are facilitated.”
That did nothing to quell calls from community members toward the end of the Board of Education meeting either for her ouster or to consider the status of head football Coach Micheal Williams, who has been on paid administrative leave since October. Earlier this month, the Pine Bluff School District voted 4-2 in a personnel hearing to deny a hearing on Williams’ Level 3 grievance that the district did not inform him of an investigation into his reported involvement with student records for potential NCAA Division I student-athletes before being placed on leave.
“I don’t think it’s fair Micheal Williams has been on paid administrative leave,” Ward 4 Councilman Steven Mays told the board, asking the nine-member panel to look into the case. “No one is talking about it. Great man, great Christian man, great Christian family. If anything, just talk to him.”
Then came complaints directed against Barbaree and the district.
Julius Wright, a local pastor, read a statement from another community member that families in the district have no faith in either the local school board or Barbaree amid its academic struggles.
“We are here to demand accountability,” Wright read. “If the state expects our community to have a strong school district, then the leadership must demonstrate their trust is earned.”
Wright and his wife, Charline, have long asserted the Pine Bluff School District and state Board of Education have violated state laws by not opening all seven positions on the local board for election when the board restored local control in the district in September 2023. Charline Wright has asked the board to remove her, although that move is unlikely.
“We need a turnaround superintendent, and when she stayed and supported the denial of an election of seven where by we could have, and did not, advertise her job — she didn’t advertise it, she just assumed it,” Charline Wright said. “She went to Conway (where Barbaree recently was a finalist for the superintendent’s role). Why not advertise for Pine Bluff’s? Let us have choices. That’s my thing. Look at Little Rock. They had a turnaround superintendent in three years.”
Toward the end of her public comment, Charline Wright turned to Barbaree behind her and told her to “put our facilities back because you tore them down,” referring to vocational-technical workshops at Pine Bluff High School that stood before the campus was torn down in 2024 to make room for a new campus. The state Board of Education commemorated February as Career and Technical Education Month in Arkansas.
“As far as calling for my removal, the data speaks for itself,” Barbaree said. “We’re growing and we’re achieving, and it’s all been under my control at this time. So when those patrons refuse to look at the actual data and look at their own data, then that’s nothing I can control.”
The Board of Education, which does not respond to public comments, leaves personnel matters to the local school boards, according to Stacy Smith, a deputy commissioner for the Education Department’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“I feel like those that continue to ask questions that I am not at liberty to discuss, there are laws and protections for employees, and there is no way I can be any more forward or transparent about employees who work for the district,” Barbaree said. “That in itself, when people ask those questions and say it is not being transparent, it’s because I’m bound by law to not speak about personnel matters.”
Board members and officials after the meeting seemed to congratulate Barbaree, who worked in the department’s Office of Coordinated Support and Service before then-state Education Secretary Johnny Key hired her as superintendent of the Pine Bluff School District — then under state control — in January 2023.
Pine Bluff School District officials and teachers who attended the board meeting were also seen sharing hugs and smiles with Barbaree, a likely sign of unity amid a community divided over what direction the district is heading.
Crystal Barnes, an environmental science teacher at alma mater Pine Bluff High School, said the district is doing good work.
“No matter what you hear, no matter what people post, we are the boots on the ground,” Barnes said. “We are on the front lines doing the work, interacting with the students, interacting with leadership, and regardless of what people say, good work is happening. We talk about growth, but let’s talk about trust. It takes years to build and minutes to break.”
Turning around a district takes about three to five years, Barnes believes, agreeing with a statement Barbaree made during a Pine Bluff School District board meeting Feb. 2. The school district signed a statement of assurance with the state Board of Education in December to show immediate academic improvement.
“You have to spend time looking at the problem,” Barnes said. “What you think and feel are the necessary corrections, you have to build a plan to even do that, and then you need time for execution. Three years? Do you really think three years is enough time to do that? And five is even a stretch because once you make this plan, you have to get people’s buy-in and work to build the rapport and trust.
“The Pine Bluff School District, I can say as a (former) student from a student’s perspective, we’ve seen a lot of superintendents. We’ve seen a lot of leadership change. Now as a teacher, I understand things differently, and I’m more receptive and respective of leadership. And I can honestly say, we are moving in a positive direction.”
More people pushing positivity and bringing solutions to the district are needed, Barnes added.
“We are a whole, and this whole thing rests on the backs of the whole — the parents, the students, the teachers, our superintendent and her staff, and our administrators all over,” she said. “It truly takes a village to raise a child, and things that have happened over time, this lady (Barbaree) needs time to fix it.”
