We hope the new, limited-power Pine Bluff School Board studies the revenue piece like they were cramming for a final.
During a recent work session, where they were presumably learning how to be knowledgeable board members who will eventually be in full control of the district, the board took time to soak up where the money comes from that keeps this district and all others afloat.
Mind you, the fiscal part is what sank the district in the first place. Well, that is where the ultimate problem was, in the dollars and cents area. We recall former Superintendent Barbara Warren — the one who was there one day and gone the next with no explanation for the disappearance — saying how difficult it was to plan facilities and contract with teachers and other staff when the financial underpinnings that support the district kept dissolving. We pictured buying a house but knowing that one’s income is dropping from year to year but not knowing by how much. Will the income cover the mortgage payment next year or the year after? Do we need a smaller house? Yes, a lot of unknowns and a lot of white knuckles.
And while the problem that put the Pine Bluff School District under state control was the finances, that of course was not the reason in and of itself. Because the district had fallen so far in the public’s perception concerning the quality of the education happening there, parents were keen on moving their children elsewhere to go to school.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Let’s also not forget that the population of the area dropped faster than any other such area in the country between 2010 and 2020. [And that wasn’t the first decade that’s happened by any stretch.] Many of those people either hitting the exits or not moving here in the first place had kids in tow. And because state education revenue follows students, the loss in those students quickly adds up to hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars.
So, yes, you school board members in training, please beef up on the money part. Making sure expenses don’t outpace revenue will be job one if this district is to make it.
The new superintendent, Jennifer Barbaree, gets kudos for her down-to-earth comments on the subject relating to the possibility of the board voting to ask patrons for a millage increase.
“Before we can talk about a millage campaign, we need to know what a mill means,” she said. “We need to know how much it’s going to generate. We need to know how much a millage increase would cost the patrons.”
Yes, all that, too.