The Pine Bluff School Board of Directors approved resignations and retirements at a special meeting Wednesday.
Pine Bluff Interim Superintendent T.C. Wallace Jr. did not provide The Commercial with the names of the employees who are resigning or retiring. He said he could not do so until Thursday.
Board President Harold Jackson referred all questions to Wallace. Board members Herman Horace, Henry Dabner, Leon Jones, Andrea Roaf-Little, Phyllis Wilkins and Jackson met in executive session for about one hour and 10 minutes Wednesday. They did not discuss anything in open session.
The board approved a motion to set a board retreat from June 12-14 and approved zoning changes. Board member Aaron Branscomb was absent.
These developments come on the heels of an April 21 meeting when the board voted unanimously to approve the reduction in force policy list, which outlined the layoffs and also outlined the job reassignments that will be made as a result of the closings of Oak Park Elementary School and Southeast Middle School at the end of the current academic year. Sixty-eight Pine Bluff School District employees will lose their jobs in June as a result of an impending closure of those school buildings.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Wallace later apologized to the public about the employees learning of the layoffs from The Commercial.
The board voted March 3 to close the schools because of declining enrollment and a subsequent drop in funding.
On Wednesday, Jackson told people in attendance that anyone who has questions about the reduction in force policy should see Wallace.