The Pine Bluff School District’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers are featured on a federal website spotlighting subgrantees for the Nita M. Lowey 21st CCLC program.
The program is supported by the Office of Elementary & Secondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education. It supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities during hours away from school for children, with an emphasis on those who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools, according to the office.
It also helps students meet state and local academic standards in core academic subjects, offers enrichment activities that can go along with their regular academic programs, and offers literacy and other educational services to families whose children participate.
During Monday’s district board meeting, the leaders of the PBSD’s 21st CCLC, director Monica McMurray, federal programs coordinator Rose Smith and site coordinators Dedrick Cross and Nicole Anderson were honored with Showing Your Stripes certificates from Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“The Pine Bluff 21st CCLC program provides students with a positive, encouraging, and enriching environment for students to feel safe, learn and experience new things,” according to a description on the website. “The program director utilizes activities such as robotics, choral and instrumental music, and academic support for K-6 grades to help improve school achievement and improve school attendance. Student misconduct during the school day has been reduced because of the efforts of the after-school program.”
The local CCLC program is also credited with hosting parent involvement nights and taking students on educational field trips to the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock and Mid-America Museum in Hot Springs.
A 2-minute online video highlights the PBSD’s 21st CCLC, which serves approximately 75 students from James Matthews and 34th Avenue elementaries.
Board members approved the sale of Series B construction bonds to Robert W. Baird & Co.
The bonds amount to $33.67 million, which is half of the $67.34 million to be covered by a millage increase voters said yes to last August. The other half of the bonds have already been sold.
Baird submitted the lowest true interest cost rate among six bids, offering 4.2573%.
Baird appointed Bank OZK as the trustee.
Minus the good faith deposit, the district will receive $32,949,673.24 in construction proceeds from the series. The district is demolishing the present Pine Bluff High School campus to make way for a new campus to open by 2026.
‘A’ FOR LETTERS
PBSD students showed growth in letter recognition and letter sound skills.
At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, 9% of kindergartners knew their sounds. That percentage rose to 82% by the end of the school year.
“We had massive growth in kindergarten, which is to be expected,” Barbaree said. “We’re going to look for that, as far as no learning loss over the summer.”
Kindergartners in the district also saw a big jump in their recognition of lowercase letters, from 20% to 89%, first-graders from 74% to 91% and second-graders from 87% to 94%.
Ninety percent of kindergartners knew their uppercase letters at the end of the school year, as did 92% of first-graders and 90% of second-graders.
“It was our teachers working so hard, making sure they looked at students’ individual needs, placing them in WIN — What I Need — groups and really focusing at that level,” Barbaree said. “We had support from our instructional facilitators, from our dyslexia interventionists, and our state literacy support also made sure we stayed on target and were hitting it at the K-2 level.”
IN OTHER SCHOOL BUSINESS
About 500 bricks of the old high school will be up for sale from 9 a.m.-noon Aug. 3 at the campus on West 11th Avenue.
District convocation for faculty and staff members is set for Wednesday-Friday at Pine Bluff First Assembly of God. Barbaree announced the district office on West Pullen Avenue will be closed Thursday so staff members can attend training for Capturing Kids’ Hearts, a program designed to help district employees better connect and communicate with kids.
The first day of school for students is July 31. The elementary school day is from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m., and the secondary school day from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.