As the Blytheville School District board prepares to face the Arkansas Board of Education on Thursday, trustees of the Mississippi County district hope to convince the state body it can operate without Level 5-Intensive support supervision.
The Pine Bluff School District endured the same fate from 2018-23. The district’s board was dismantled due to financial concerns and faced direct supervision from the education secretary, a position now held by Jacob Oliva.
In recent months, the Pine Bluff district’s board President Sederick Charles Rice has spoken with Blytheville board members about how to improve its cohesiveness. Rice is one of the seven original appointees of a limited-authority board the state body named in late 2022 and granted full authority in September 2023.
“I just really wanted to talk about communication and understanding the dynamic of board members,” Rice said Tuesday after the district held its monthly board meeting.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The state Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), a division of the Arkansas Department of Education (governed by the state board), wrote in a May 14 letter to Blytheville district interim Superintendent Jennifer Blankenship and board President Desmond Hammett the district demonstrated “absence of coherent leadership,” citing a vacancy in the superintendent position, delayed staffing decision and stalled hiring processes; “inconsistent governance structure,” citing a lack of cohesive governance practices; and “chronic student underachievement,” citing enrollment loss and low academic performance. The nine-member state board will meet with the Blytheville board at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Blytheville High School auditorium.
Under state law, if a school district needs Level 5, the highest level of support DESE can give a district, the state board may either direct Oliva, who is also commissioner of DESE, “to conduct an analysis of all school district systems and make recommendations for action by the state board;” and assume authority of the district and take one or more of actions including, but not limited to:
Either removing, reassigning or suspending the superintendent and replacing with another person to lead the district;
Removing or suspending some or all board members and either calling for an election of board members or require the district to operate without a board (as Pine Bluff did);
Removing some or all powers of the board.
Asked what the state board is likely to decide, spokeswoman Kimberly Mundell said: “We’ll know more tomorrow. That’s what the meeting is about, to hear the information and decide what’s best.”
Hammett said via phone Wednesday the Blytheville board is not dysfunctional.
“The board has four new members on the board within the last two years, and we are destined for the work ahead of us. We didn’t get here overnight. We’re up for the challenge and task, and we will make our case to the state board and tell our side of the story. We’ll see where things go from there.”
Hammett said the cities of Blytheville and Pine Bluff have faced similar socioeconomic and educational challenges in recent years including poverty and the need to identify skills and resources students in Blytheville may lack. Blytheville is known, however, for a growing steel industry.
“There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution that solves every problem,” Hammett said, adding some residents have not been connected to the school district.
He added, however, the Blytheville board members have learned plenty from Rice during an Arkansas School Boards Association work session earlier in the year. Communication, dealing with community stakeholders, board cohesiveness and difficulties a board can face are among the things Rice said he shared with board members.
“Just trying to find cohesiveness because at the end of the day, it’s really all about student success,” Rice added. “I was blessed to have that opportunity because they reached out, and primarily because of the work we’re doing as a board. The state is watching and other states are watching how we interact with each other. We don’t always agree, but we’re cordial and professional, and I think that’s what they saw and that’s what we try to present in our training.”
Hammett called the meeting with Rice “spot-on,” adding the challenges Rice and the district faced are those Blytheville board members face.
Pine Bluff district Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree, a former superintendent in the Mississippi County community of Armorel, said the ASBA recognized Rice and the district for the body’s cohesiveness in a meeting earlier this month.
As the board goes, so does the district, Rice also pointed out. But the Blytheville board has been more unified in the past three years with the common goal of providing students the best education possible, Hammett said.
“There has been a black cloud,” he said. “There was a time when things were dysfunctional, but we don’t have that problem anymore.”