The Arkansas State Board of Education will visit campuses in the Watson Chapel and Pine Bluff school districts Thursday morning and hold its monthly meeting that afternoon at the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative in Pine Bluff.
The State Board did not state the reason for the upcoming visit. The nine-person panel will visit Pine Bluff’s Forrest Park/Greenville Kinder Center at 10:30 a.m., following its 9 a.m. stop at Watson Chapel’s Coleman Elementary.
Both the Pine Bluff and Watson Chapel districts were graded F under Arkansas’ new accountability formula for public schools and districts. Pine Bluff Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree said she will take the State Board visit as an opportunity not only to showcase positive achievements in her district but also to help give board members an idea of the work that goes into trying to improve a school district academically.
“I know it’s CTE Month, and we’re going to highlight some of our students in our CTE (career and technical education) programs,” Barbaree said. “I know we’ve got some students who can speak to that. I just think it’s a great opportunity to highlight our district and celebrate our students.”
In all, six traditional public districts and four charter systems including Friendship Aspire Academy Network, which has campuses in Pine Bluff, have appeared before the State Board and the state Charter Authorizing Panel, respectively, in recent months and have signed pledges to the entities for immediate improvement.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Barbaree, who was hired in January 2023, said during a Feb. 2 PBSD board meeting school districts normally take three to five years to improve from failing status to a high level of achievement. The PBSD operated under state control from September 2018 to September 2023, when the State Board granted the district full local control during a meeting at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
“I’d love to present on the timeline of when we became a district that was no longer under state control, and the board acting as the board and me acting as the superintendent, how short that timeline really is and how much we really accomplished within that timeline.”
The State Board meeting is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at the education cooperative at 912 W. Sixth Ave. The meeting will be in-person only.
Barbaree is on the agenda to provide updates on the PBSD, and Pine Bluff High sophomore Joven Hamlet will perform the national anthem. The only action item on the agenda is the approval of minutes from the January State Board meeting.
Public comments will be heard toward the end of the meeting.
MAKEUP DATES DETERMINED
The PBSD will hold classes Feb. 17-20 and March 20 to make up for days lost due to the winter storm that arrived Jan. 23.
The February dates will take up all but one day of the previously scheduled winter break in the district’s year-round schedule. Feb. 16, which is Presidents Day, will remain an off day. March 20 was previously a flex professional development day.
The PBSD board approved the dates during a special meeting Tuesday. Barbaree recommended the dates based on a survey distributed by members of the Personnel Policy Committee. She said 246 employees responded.
Of those, 45.9% voted for the new makeup dates, 42.3% voted for keeping the previously scheduled makeup days (Feb. 16-17, April 3, May 21-22), and 11.8% voted for Feb. 17-20 and April 3.
“I think our teachers realize the importance of putting instruction back in front of our students,” Barbaree said. “We’ve got such good momentum going with our Tier 1 instruction and interventions, we want to make sure we’re providing as much learning to our students as possible prior to the ATLAS (Arkansas Teaching, Learning and Assessment System).”
PERSONNEL MOVES
The following personnel actions were approved during the Feb. 2 board meeting:
New hires including Joshua Gregory as a music teacher at Southwood Elementary and Kimberly Lang as a teacher at Southwood;
The resignations of Daquaron Dale and Shannon Young as paraprofessionals at Broadmoor and Southwood elementaries, respectively;
And the retirement of Joe Mosely from the district maintenance department.
This version has been UPDATED with the personnel moves.