Patrick Lockett built a sizable lead over Charline Wright to fill the Zone 7 seat on the Pine Bluff School District board of directors.
With 31 of 36 polling sites reporting, the unofficial returns show:
Lockett 917
Wright 691
Lockett, the city’s director of code enforcement and a pastor, is hoping to succeed Lori Walker Guelache, who chose not to run for election. Guelache was one of seven appointed to the PBSD board in December 2022, when the district was still under state control.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I feel real confident, from what I’ve heard,” Lockett said while hosting a watch party at Indigo Blue Coffeehouse on Barraque Street. “They’ve called it somewhat, but we know some (results) still have to come in.”
Lockett recently cited the PBSD’s average daily attendance of students, graduation rate and number of students it loses annually as immediate concerns. He’s also pushing for a comprehensive school marketing plan in the district and strategic policies with an emphasis on student learning.
“We want to make sure that we get in and find out what the agenda is and find out which way we want to go and see what input I can have to help (board President Sederick Charles) Rice and (Superintendent Jennifer) Barbaree and really move the district forward,” Lockett said.
Seeing things from a different element and knowing how to help, Lockett said, would be advantages for him on the board.
Wright is a retired math teacher with 41 years’ experience. Although she ran for a seat on the board, she was critical of the district’s decision to stagger election dates for its board members and even encouraged those interested to run for a board seat that wasn’t up for election. She has argued that Act 633 of 2023 calls for the election of an entire school board once its district has been released from Level 5 intensive support by the Arkansas Department of Education. The PBSD was released from state control in September 2023, at which time the state Board of Education accepted the district’s plan to stagger election dates to promote continuity.
Wright said, if elected, she would work with Barbaree and the board despite recent criticisms she made about district leadership. She said in a recent Q-and-A article her stance was not personal, but argued the board is not elected.
The next PBSD election will be for Zone 1 in November 2025. Jomeka Edwards is the incumbent.
Charline Wright