Charline Wright is seeking the Zone 7 seat on the Pine Bluff School District Board.
Wright desires to use her 41 years’ experience as a lifetime certified, highly qualified educator and administrator, according to a news release. She feels her master’s degree in school leadership skills and knowledge enabled her to be an effective educator, math coach and secondary math instructional specialist and an effective PBSD board member to assist the district in maintaining its local control, academic success and fiscal stability.
Wright was employed for three years at Southeast Middle School and transferred to Pine Bluff High School to teach her favorite subjects, algebra and geometry. Her students still call her “Mother Wright” in that she offered moral and academic support.
After 28 years in PBSD, she retired. Not being finished with education, she gained employment with Pulaski County Special School District. Her mathematical skills and rapport with students afforded her a position in the Gifted and Talented program at Mills High School as AP geometry and algebra teacher. Wright treasures her last year in the program, as all her students were proficient and advanced on their summative assessments.
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After 7.5 years in the PCSSD, Wright returned to PBSD as math coach. In that role, she collaborated and modeled skills and best practices in professional learning communities for teachers. Her students had successes in growth on their summative assessments. As a member of the Leadership Team, she collaborated with administrators and staff weekly.
After two years in the PBSD, Wright became the first secondary math instructional specialist at Watson Chapel School District. Her role was similar to the math coach position in the PBSD. Again, students demonstrated growth on formative and summative assessments.
Wright and her three sons are graduates of PBHS. Her husband is a graduate of Coleman/Watson Chapel high schools. She supports students in Pine Bluff community to attain tools and resources to maximize their success.
Wright cherishes the memory of being honored “Student of the Year for Algebra I” by Lura Campbell at Belair Junior High School, the second year after integration as a poor black girl from a family of eight siblings. Destiny played a role in Wright’s career path and life when she met her future husband her senior year in high school and he encouraged her to attend college. Believing she was too poor, he informed her about grants and loans.
The late Otis Brown, assistant principal, and Dr. Stephen Broughton, a fellow classmate, were instrumental in her receiving the first Kellogg Foundation Scholarship in mathematics at PBHS. Wright was President of Beta Kappa Chi and Alpha Kappa Chi National Scientific Honor Societies at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She was honored as Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities.
Wright’s former math chairperson and dean of Arts and Sciences, the late Chancellor Dr. Lawrence A. Davis Jr., encouraged her to complete education hours after she completed her math degree in three years. She graduated cum laude in 1979.
Her past and present education affiliations include PBEA, AEA, NEA, PCSSD, NCTM and ACTM, and the Pine Bluff Branch of the NAACP Education Committee.
Wright served as co-chair for the committee of Pine Bluff United Stakeholders for PBSD limited board candidates and to develop a scenario for PBSD school board zones. Wright was one of the committee members of Our PBSD Committee during the millage campaign.
She cites her passion to help students lacking resources and direction in her drive for the Zone 7 position. Quoting Thurgood Marshall, Wright states: “Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place.” Wright feels that a perfect opportunity for her to serve as PBSD board member is present to help students receive the same education at the same time as other students in Arkansas.