The executive director of recruitment and talent acquisition in the Pine Bluff School District received a partial sustainment of her grievance from the district board following a nearly three-hour hearing Monday night.
The board voted 5-1, with one member absent, to add a $10,000 stipend to Monica McMurray’s contract for this year. McMurray, an interim superintendent in the PBSD before its 2018 state takeover, had asked that she be awarded two $10,000 stipends – one for each of the past two years – for performing duties above and beyond her job description, which she testified she wrote just months after Jennifer Barbaree took on her current role as superintendent in 2023.
Ricky Whitmore Jr. cast the lone dissenting vote, but he did not announce whether he was for a full sustainment or full dismissal of the grievance, the other two choices the board could have made.
“That was the board’s decision. That’s what they’re there to do,” PBSD Attorney Cody Kees said after the meeting. “The administration will go ahead and implement the board’s decision.”
Both McMurray and her attorney, Michael Muskheli of Little Rock, declined comment after the meeting.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
McMurray testified she assumed responsibilities in addition to her then-position of coordinator for retention and recruitment in 2022. Reading a response to her grievance from Barbaree, McMurray explained the district adjusted an index of 1.7 to her salary for the 2023-24 school year, reflecting an increase in her pay. The index number does not necessarily represent a multiplication factor.
“A multiplier is synonymous with a job title,” McMurray said, testifying as 20 visitors observed the hearing. “It is not a standard stipend. Every single district-level employee has a multiplier in the calculation of their salary. You don’t use it to apply a stipend amount.”
Barbaree argued a stipend is for additional duty that is not part of one’s job description. McMurray accused Barbaree of “covertly giving responsibilities” to human resources personnel that otherwise are hers at one point.
McMurray furthered her point by comparing her salary to another district-level employee who received a total of $43,000 in raises since the 2023-24 school year. Barbaree testified McMurray, who stated her salary as a coordinator was at least $97,000, makes at least $108,000.
In Muskheli’s cross-examination, Barbaree said the index was larger than a stipend. She said McMurray first brought up the issue in May.
Little Rock Attorney Scott Richardson officiated the hearing, which was marked at times by Kees’ challenges that McMurray did not stay on topic and Richardson’s admonition to McMurray to not respond to Kees’ questions with a question.
Barbaree said after she explained to McMurray there was not enough money to grant her a $10,000 stipend, McMurray later asked for a $5,000 increase, a point McMurray did not refute.
“I thought she understood. We hugged it out, end of meeting,” Barbaree said.
Barbaree and McMurray said they harbored no ill feelings toward each other.
PUBLIC COMMENT DRAMA
Emotional fireworks had already erupted at the start of the board meeting.
Board President Sederick Charles Rice stopped a public comment by Charline Wright about halfway into her three-minute time limit, stating Wright spoke about an issue over which the board had no control. Rice had warned attendees 15 minutes before the start of the meeting such speeches would be considered “out of order” and the speaker would be asked to yield the remainder of time as a result.
Wright, one of the leaders of the Concerned Stakeholders of the PBSD, resumed her longstanding claim that district residents are denied an election of all seven board members, nearly two years after the state Board of Education reinstated local control in the PBSD. Rice has constantly argued the district’s staggered election dates, which were modified due to Act 503 of this year’s Legislature, does not violate previous state law and promotes continuity in district leadership.
Before being stopped, Wright accused the PBSD board of election suppression by not posting zoning maps ahead of board elections and not announcing elections on the district website.
Rice hit the gavel and asked Wright to take her seat repeatedly, but Wright refused, continued her speech and at one point shouted to Rice that he was out of order. A security guard escorted Wright from the podium once the three minutes expired.
“The Pine Bluff School District doesn’t have any authority with that,” Rice explained to attendees. “If there’s a concern with that, that needs to be taken up with the attorney general.”
Bonita Corbin and Patrick Lockett won elections to seats zones 6 and 7, respectively, in 2024. Lockett defeated Wright in his race and Corbin ran unopposed.
Seats in zones 1-3 presently held by Jomeka Edwards, LozAnne Calhoun and Whitmore will be up for election March 3. Seats in zones 4-5 held by Rice and Charles Colen will be contested in March 2028.
