Everyone has a to-do list, even if it’s jotted down upstairs and not on a piece of paper. It helps put things into perspective. Finish those last five feet of distributing mulch, especially before company comes. Put that package in the mail. Et cetera.
People have them, businesses have them, even school districts have them, especially if you’re the Pine Bluff School District and your superintendent is Jennifer Barbaree.
At a recent board meeting, she put forth five strategic goals, a fancy term for stuff we oughta get done, for 2025. And as with any good operation, decisions are fleshed out with others.
In this case, she turned to the staff — who better to know what needs to be done? — and patrons. That also acts as a bit of team-building, as in, “Hey, you all said this was important so now we’re doing it.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
In the end, the list calls for creating pathways to student success — not just a pathway to get a student into a graduation cap and gown but success after graduation; making sure the campus is safe and the environment is supportive (Can there be anything more important than safety in this day and age?); making sure the facilities that are available to students are in good order; making the required effort to increase the number of qualified teachers in the district (Remember the finding awhile back that a child could go their entire 12 years in school in Pine Bluff and never have a certified teacher?); and reaching out to the public in ways that cultivates the community’s confidence in the whole operation.
That last one speaks for itself. If the public has lost faith in a district, that’s a tough thing to turn around.
But if the public is excited about having a top notch institution in their midst, that mindset is infectious and leads to a change in momentum.
The voters’ approval of a millage increase to build a new high school would suggest there is a lot of support out there for the district to be successful.
One area that holds promise is a virtual academy the district now offers. Barbaree said the academy had attracted students from other school districts, which is always welcome news, especially when money follows students to wherever they enroll.
“If we can continue to offer that, as a district, maybe we can keep our students from choicing out and going to that,” she said.
So there’s a new campus under construction, but it appears no one is sitting back and waiting on the bricks and mortar of that operation to infuse the educational process.
No, that’s happening now, and now there’s a check-off list everyone can follow for the new year.