The Zone 5 seat on the Pine Bluff School District board is not open, despite an attempt by an interested candidate to file for the Nov. 5 general election.
Liza Johnson, a voter registration clerk in the office of Jefferson County Clerk Shawndra Taggart, announced Wednesday morning in an email that only board seats for zones 6 and 7 are up for election after receiving confirmation from PBSD Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree.
Andranette “Anne” Anderson-Gragg had filed to run for the Zone 5 seat currently held by Charles Colen, but according to lots for election dates drawn by each board member last fall, Colen’s seat is not up for election until November 2027.
The clerk’s office Tuesday afternoon announced Anderson-Gragg’s filing, using her first name Willie.
“It has been brought to our attention that the only School Board positions available are Zone 6 and Zone 7,” Johnson emailed Wednesday morning. “Therefore, we are removing Mrs. Willie ‘Anne’ Anderson-Gragg from the list of candidates. Mrs. Anderson-Gragg has been notified. Our sincere apology for the inconvenience.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Interviewed at the clerk’s office Wednesday, Johnson said the PBSD never notified her previously that only seats in zones 6 and 7 were up for election in November. Barbaree said she sent Johnson minutes from the October board meeting in which lots for campaign dates were drawn.
Asked for her reaction, Anderson-Gragg said: “I don’t have one. I can’t say I’m surprised. I’m just going with the flow.”
Anderson-Gragg and fellow retired teacher Charline Wright, members of the PBSD Concerned Stakeholders advocacy group, have vocally opposed the district’s staggered election plan for its school board since the Arkansas Board of Education restored full authority to the PBSD board last September.
Anderson-Gragg and Wright maintain that Act 633 of 2023 calls for an election of an entire school board once the district has been released from Level 5 intensive support, which the PBSD had received during its takeover by the Arkansas Department of Education for five years.
Wright, meanwhile, has filed for candidacy in Zone 7, as has local pastor and city code enforcement director Patrick Lockett. The incumbent, Lori Walker Guelache, had not yet filed as of Tuesday evening, according to the clerk’s office.
Wright expressed disappointment Anderson-Gragg would not get to run in Zone 5. Wright said they and other supporters of their cause received independent candidate petition forms June 14, only to be told last Friday at the courthouse the forms they received were incorrect. Wright showed a photo of a petition for an independent candidate of a county or township office or justice of the peace.
“We had gotten 100 signatures for all these zones and found out we got the wrong petitions,” Wright said.
She continued the group spent this past weekend canvassing with the correct petition forms and returned to the courthouse Tuesday to file again. Wright said Taggart, who was absent from her office Wednesday morning, allowed her and Anderson-Gragg to file, citing they had met requirements.
Wright said she hopes someone from the PBSD will send Anderson-Gragg a letter of denial via Freedom of Information Act request.
Bonita Corbin, who was appointed to the board in Zone 6 following Dr. Stephen A. Broughton’s resignation earlier this year, has filed to run for that position.
The deadline to file for candidacy for a school board position was noon Wednesday. The filing period opened July 31.
PBSD election dates
Election dates for Pine Bluff School District board seats, as determined by drawing in October and November 2023, with the exception of Zone 6, in which the incumbent has succeeded a board member who resigned (each board seat is for five years with the exception of Zone 6, which will be up for election in 2028 due to the resignation):
Nov. 5, 2024 — Zone 6 (incumbent and candidate Bonita Corbin); Zone 7 (incumbent Lori Walker Guelache; candidates Patrick Lockett and Charline Wright)
November 2025 — Zone 1 (incumbent Jomeka Edwards)
November 2026 — Zone 2 (incumbent LozAnne Calhoun)
November 2027 — Zone 3 (incumbent Ricky Whitmore Jr.) and Zone 5 (incumbent Charles Colen)
November 2028 — Zone 4 (incumbent Sederick Charles Rice) and Zone 6