School district presents yearly update
The Pine Bluff School District presented its annual accountability report to the public Tuesday evening in a Zoom event, providing information on many aspects of the school, its resources, successes, and the areas in which improvements are needed.
Hosted by Superintendent Barbara Warren, the meeting was joined by assistant superintendents Jonathan Crossley and Wanda Van Dyke as well as chief operation officer Leroy Harris.
Warren gave some past history about the district and why it was placed under the direction of the education commissioner on Sept. 13, 2018.
“At that time, Pine Bluff School district was classified in fiscal distress,” said Warren. “A little later, on Nov. 8, 2018, the Pine Bluff School District was classified in the need of Level 5 support, and state authority was reaffirmed by the state Board of Education.”
The district had five of its six schools with a letter grade of F. Those schools were Pine Bluff High, 34th Avenue Elementary, Broadmoor Elementary, Southwood Elementary, and W.T. Cheney Elementary. Jack Robey Junior High School had a D grade. In 2019, only one school improved to a D grade, joining Jack Robey Junior High—Southwood Elementary.
“There are some indicators, I would say the ability to exit Level 5 and we have a plan that has five different steps,” said Warren.
The Level 5 exit plan consists of:
1. Collaborative teams regularly interacting to address common issues regarding curriculum, assessment, instruction and the achievement of all students.
2. The school being aware of and monitoring predominant instructional practices.
3. The school providing teachers with clear, ongoing evaluations of their pedagogical strengths and weaknesses that are based on multiple sources of data and that are consistent with student achievement data.
4. The school curriculum and accompanying assessments adhering to state and district standards.
5. The school managing its fiscal, operational, and technological resources in a way that directly supports teachers to provide a safe, supportive, and collaborative culture and increase student achievement.
In the 2015-2016 school year, there were 4,016 students with base revenue of $35,773,761. A continuous decrease of student population has resulted in this year’s enrollment of 2,897 students with base revenue of $26,382,624.
“The status that we are in Level 5, meeting those indicators and providing those supporters at a proficient level will position us to exit,” said Warren.
Warren said that because of the pandemic and the emergency order of the governor, the district is unable to move forward with an assessment. “The state is still making decisions about how the school district will be impacted in respect to their levels for exit,” said Warren.
There are 474 staff members in the school district, with 233 classified and 241 certified. Traditionally licensed teachers make up 127 of the certified staff members meaning they went to school to become teachers and fulfilled the necessary requirements.
“There are other persons in the district who may have chosen a nontraditional path,” said Warren giving examples of some who have come from the corporate sector or chose their career later in life. “It is, of course, our goal to have traditionally licensed teachers, but we have teachers who are nontraditionally licensed and are in the process of becoming one and they are doing an awesome job.”
Harris presented the overall fund balance for the district, which on June 30 ended the year with approximately $5,270,550.
“In 2017, there was a bit of a deficient between ‘17 and ‘18, a slight uptick between ‘18 and ‘19 and between ‘19 and ‘20 a larger uptick that’s directly related to some of the measures we put in place during the ‘18-‘19 school year,” he said.
A fiscal distress improvement plan included closely aligning expenditures with the most appropriate funding sources, a decrease in personnel expenditure related to litigation, staff classrooms, and schools closer to state standards based on funding sources, and increase base teacher salary pay to $36,500.
“A salary schedule revision was submitted this past year for the Pine Bluff School District, but because of the covid implications on local revenue as well as state revenue, the decision on that was tabled until the spring of 2021,” said Harris. “State representatives want to get a better feel for where we were in regards to local tax revenue as well as the student population.”
Harris said the declining enrollment was a huge concern. In the 2015-2016 school year, there were 4,016 students with base revenue of $35,773,761. A continuous decrease of student population has resulted in this year’s enrollment of 2,897 students with base revenue of $26,382,624.
“For the past six years we continue to lose enrollment,” he said. “Each time we do that creates an issue with our funding.”
On a positive note, the budgeted revenue to actual spending was higher, increasing the fund balance by $1,518,421.
“We will need to monitor general operating expenditures closely and fully utilize nongeneral operating funds to avoid deficit spending in [fiscal 2021],” said Harris. The district also has more than the recommended fund balance and cash-on-hand putting it in good financial standing for now, but Harris said if enrollment continues to decline, that will eat into the fiscal health of the district.
Van Dyke said the district’s literacy focus was to provide high-quality instruction by making sure all staff members have their skills to the highest level possible. “When we entered July of 2019, less than 1% of our staff had not even fully begun training,” she said. “When we began the fall of this year, 98% of our returning staff had completed phase one training.”
Van Dyke said this learning curve by the teachers surpassed so many school districts with 100% of the kindergarten through sixth grade teachers on track.
Seventy-one percent of the students are virtual learners, according to Crossley.
All students have social and emotional support services offered to them including a clothes closet, food pantry and laundry facilities. Data presented showed 84% of the students were low income, and the student demographic of the district was 95.7% Black.
Other support and resources include school counselors, career coaches, several academies and HIPPY.
District highlights included partnering with Delta Food Bank and securing a food backpack program for Southwood Elementary, securing a $60,800 fresh fruit and vegetable grant, and securing a $30,000 grant for the district food pantry to name a few.
As Warren concluded the activities of the 2019-20 school year, she noted that even though she was not a part of the efforts of the previous year, she did hear about the wonderful work of the district.
“There were a lot of changes and a lot of buzz around several new initiatives and the success of several initiatives that have been going on for quite a long time,” said Warren. “I saw you and I am very, very happy to be a part of our district.”