The security team for the Pine Bluff School District will all be armed, its new director said.
Foster Baker told the PBSD board Monday all security officers for the district are required by Arkansas State Police to undergo training to be commissioned. The officers are all hired by the district and are trained in Arkansas law, weapon handling, use of force and handling stressful situations.
Part of the training involved a full day spent on a firing range where each officer would learn how to hold and fire a weapon, and how to take a proper stance in firing.
“We knew by training with the state police, we would get the proper training,” Baker said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
He added officers also undergo vetting through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, state police and child maltreatment records.
Baker succeeds Efrem Elliott, who is now the security director for the Watson Chapel School District.
For the 2024-25 school year, seven officers (including Baker and three certified safety and security officers, or CSSOs) will be stationed at Pine Bluff High School at the Jack Robey campus. Four (including two CSSOs) will be at the Pine Bluff Junior High seventh- and eighth-grade campus, three (including two CSSOs) will be at the Ninth Grade Academy, two (including one CSSO) will be at each of the four K-6 elementary schools and one CSSO will be at Forrest Park/Greenville Pre-K.
The district’s goal is to have all officers certified to be armed, Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree clarified.
Baker is also planning to establish a unification site off-campus, an exact location for which is yet to be determined. A unification site is where parents and guardians can reunite with their students in the event of an emergency.
“State law says that if there is an active threat at one of our campuses, that campus becomes a crime scene,” Baker said. “Parents will not be allowed on campus to retrieve their students.”
Baker mentioned, however, he had been in contact with the police chief at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff about a possible site there.
PERSONNEL MOVES
Twelve of the hires at a July 16 special board meeting are CSSOs: Jeffery Fuller, Jaleesa Harroway, Marilyn Smith, Tim Collins, Antoine Walker, Desmond Johnson, Natae Johnson, Jonah Israel, Terry Cogshell, Brandon Deshazier, Cornovious Branch and Courtney Fox.
Other classified hires from July 16 include Jennifer White as administrative assistant, Cornelius Talley as personal paraprofessional, Dominique Foots as special education parapro, Felicia Kimble as special education parapro and LaToya Phillips as pre-K parapro.
Certified hires include Tanya Smith as district inclusion specialist; Darnesha Carter and Janille Warren as special education teachers; and Justin Jones, Tammy Johnson, Paula Mauldin, Andrew Roshell, Shirley Smith, Tamina Smith, Destiny Davis, Tamika Ridgle, KeLanda Williams, Linda Simmons and Gregory King as teachers.
Resignations include CSSOs Jimmy Fisher and Ashakee Jackson, security officer Xavier Higgins, custodian Ma’ryma Stewart, special education teacher Katherine Guynn and teachers Billy Gibbs and Teraka Holloway. A contract for security officer Harold Thomas was rescinded.
Hires following Monday’s board meeting (positions not listed):
Classified — Kendria Barnes, Nikita Richardson-Lowe and Ray Branch Jr.;
Certified — Marland Smith, Joseph Welch, Makayla Sanders, Patricia Burnett, Kamira Davis, Pauline Weston Cross and Sharon Rasberry;
Resignations — Aaron Johnson, Laura Coleman and Pamela Carter.