Pine Bluff School District board members Monday night unanimously approved a budget for the 2025-26 school year that, when considering beginning balances and expected revenue for each fund, totals about $130.8 million.
The PBSD expects to see an ending balance of $3,392,520 in operating funds, a little more than half of what the district is carrying over from the 2024-25 school year. More than $42.5 million is projected in revenue for the operating fund, a decrease of less than $1 million during the last school year, but expenditures of $23,585,999 are projected, an increase of more than $800,000. The district is carrying over $6,362,676 from the end of the last school year.
“We have a decrease in revenue because of the less foundation funding and specific types of restricted funds that are planned operating,” PBSD Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree said. “Our expenditures are just a little bit higher due to absorbing pay raises to our nurses. We continue to give a step increase to our employees, and we also have filled positions we didn’t fill last year.”
More than $15.8 million is going to teacher salaries. The PBSD ended 2024-25 with $42,311,942 in its building fund and, after $13,868,259 in revenue and $40,983,593.71 in expenditures, will finish with $15,196,608. The district is nearing completion of a two-story high school at the campus’ original location on West 11th Avenue, set to open next summer.
The PBSD expects to have $64,819 left over in federal grants, $177,396 in activity funds and $481,790 in food service funds by the end of this school year.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
With a loss of 243 students from 2024-25, Barbaree said, the district budgeted a decrease in federal funding by $1,709,815. It was not immediately known how the ongoing federal government shutdown would impact funding for this school year.
“We know there’s a decrease in federal funding, and with the decrease we had to move around some positions we know are still important, parts of our student support systems like paraprofessionals we paid out of Title I, and other positions we paid out of federal money, we moved that to operating funds,” Barbaree said. “We increased our salaries for nurses, and we had classrooms that had long-term subs, and we’ve actually filled those positions with certified teachers. That is a larger increase in salary as well.”
WATSON CHAPEL
More expenditures than revenue are projected in the Watson Chapel School District.
The district is close to completion of its new high school campus but faces an increase of almost $700,000 in supplies and materials and almost $300,000 in property and equipment. Certified salaries slightly rose to $7,547,088 and classified salaries went down by almost $500,000 to $3,780,821 in 2025-26 projections, all part of $22,688,669 in projected expenditures against $21,748,946 in projected revenue. With the carryover of $3,683,615 from last school year, the district estimates an ending balance of $2,743,892.
Superintendent Keith McGee said the WCSD is focusing on right-sizing classrooms, increasing class sizes in the secondary grade levels to at least 20 and up to 25 and, for the primary grade levels, up to 20 students.
“Putting the kids together but not overwhelming the teacher, that’s what we call right-sizing,” McGee said.
No teacher positions were cut over the summer, but “a couple of teachers” will need to be hired to address potential overflow in elementary class size, he added.
WHITE HALL
The White Hall School District expects to bring in $34,578,856 for 2025-26, more than $1.3 million than in 2024-25, and spend $28,387,298. That would leave a surplus of $6,191,558, well above its beginning balance of $3,998,007.
The district projects to see an increase in foundation funding by more than $1 million to $24,706,292. Certified salaries will see a slight bump of more than $528,000 to $13,935,702.
The district plans to transfer $2,193,551 to the building fund.