The Pine Bluff School District board Wednesday approved a budget for the 2024-25 school year that is projected to see $42,684,718 in expenditures against a revenue of $49,728,097.
The district is allocated $26,891,753 in local tax revenue, representing a guaranteed 98% of the 25 mills taxpayers cover. State foundation funding provides for $7,771 per student.
Among state categorical funds the PBSD receives: $2,046,049 is for enhanced student achievement, $182,354 is for professional development; and $76,349 is for alternative learning. The district is waiting to hear how much it will receive for English as a second language services.
In federal funds, the PBSD is allocated $2,712,927 for Title I, including Section 1003 School Improvement Grants and a $20,000 McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act subgrant; $222,339 for Title II (teacher recruitment and staff development); $207,084.89 for Title IV in addition to $190,491 for Stronger Connections and $150,000 for 21st Century Community Learning Centers); and $1,086,513 for Title VI-B (special education).
An unspecified amount in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds is remaining in the PBSD coffers. Barbaree said those funds, which were part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, must be encumbered by Sept. 30 and liquidated by next January.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The district funds are broken into eight categories:
Fund 1 as the teacher salary fund ($15,443,179);
Fund 2 as the unrestricted operating fund ($21,399,179);
Fund 3 as the building/capital projects fund ($38,200,000);
Fund 4 as the debt service fund for bond payment ($5,842,359);
Fund 5 as the capital outlay/dedicated maintenance and operations (M&O) fund ($1 million);
Fund 6 as the restricted federal grants fund ($9,960,872);
Fund 7 as the activity fund (not budgeted); and
Fund 8 as the food service fund ($2,721,346).
The PBSD also announced it is one of 13 Arkansas districts to be awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS. The district will receive $476,520 to go toward weapon detectors for all schools and other safety measures.
Assistant superintendent Kelvin Gragg reached out to COPS to apply for the grant, Barbaree said.
Barbaree, who became superintendent in January 2023, noted the district focused on right-sizing its expenditures over the past two years. The PBSD projects to spend $50,416 on phone services – less than half of what it paid during the 2023-24 school year, after whittling that bill down from $306,829 in 2022-23. The district budgets only $100,000 for fuel (gas and diesel), a $30,210.20 drop from last school year and $47,326 savings from 2022-23.
“Now, every month, we shop for the best gas and diesel price, and that’s what we use,” Barbaree said.
Copier leasing is only expected to cost the PBSD $64,536, a savings of more than $20,000 from last school year, after it acquired a contract with a different company. The district paid $289,865 for copiers in 2022-23.
The district offers $8,856,249 in classified salaries, almost $600,000 less than in each of the last two school years, and $15,443,179 in certified salaries, about $350,000 less than in 2023-24 and nearly $1 million less than in 2022-23. A raise was given to every classified staffer for this budget, Barbaree noted.
“We are continuing to right-size and use the right people and try to be fiscally sound,” she said.
Although the district has made many cuts, she added, benefits are still provided to employees including health insurance and teacher retirement contributions, employee dental insurance, long-term disability, employee basic life insurance, eight weeks’ paid maternity leave and four weeks’ paid paternity leave; 10 sick days and two personal days, based on a 190-day contract.
The estimated cost of a $50,000 teacher contract with benefits and fringe benefits is $63,100, according to Barbaree.
Also Wednesday, Go Forward Pine Bluff presented the PBSD with a $35,000 check to cover the cost of the training pathway for teachers through Teach for America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying future education leaders to help transform education. The PBSD presently does not have a TFA teacher, but the donation is enough to cover five teachers, Barbaree said.
The PBSD Unified Stakeholders group also donated $2,000 to the district’s student and staff activity fund.