‘No’ to school tax
Editor, The Commercial:
I would like to present facts that will help the Pine Bluff School District’s stakeholders make an informed decision when they go to the polls on Aug. 1-8 for the upcoming PBSD millage election.
As a proud retired educator of 41 years in the Pine Bluff School District, the Pulaski County Special School District and the Watson Chapel School District as a secondary math teacher, as a math coach, and as a secondary math instructional specialist, I am a concerned Pine Bluff School District stakeholder in the preservation of the Pine Bluff School District after Nov. 8, 2023.
I do feel that the students in the Pine Bluff School District deserve the best facilities, best teachers and equal chance of success that they can be provided. Our measure of success lies in providing equal opportunity to ALL students to perform as high achievers, to the best of their potential.
Most Pine Bluff School District stakeholders do not know that we are in Level 5 Intensive Support under the authority of the Arkansas Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This means that on or before Nov. 8, 2023, the Arkansas Department of Education will decide whether there will be a Pine Bluff School District or whether there will not be a Pine Bluff School District. Our situation will be similar to that of Dollarway, Altheimer, Wabbaseka, and Linwood — after annexation, they no longer exist as districts.
In my positions of math coach and secondary math instructional specialist, I became aware that not all students were provided equal opportunity to succeed on the ACT Aspire Assessments, which caused our schools to be labeled as Level 5 Intensive Support, “failed status quos” and “dominoes to fall.” These are the words of our newly elected Gov. Sarah Sanders, who labeled districts in Level 5 as dominoes to fall, and proudly stated she would not be a caretaker of the failed status quos.
In Nov. 8, 2018, the Pine Bluff School District was placed in Level 5 Intensive Support — and we were not given the same tools as others to be successful on the ACT Aspire Assessments. Gov. Sanders labeled the Marvel-Elaine School District as the first domino to fall, and is anticipating the PBSD as the next to fall on Nov. 8, 2023.
On March 15, 2023, Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree informed my husband, Julius Wright, and myself that the Pine Bluff School District would not meet Level 5 Intensive Support on Nov. 8, 2023, which means that according to Gov. Sanders’ LEARNS Legislation, the Pine Bluff School District may not exist —whether it is consolidated into the Watson Chapel School District or subject to the transformational leadership management of a charter school, perhaps the local Friendship Charter School.
Therefore, if the Pine Bluff School District taxpayers pass the millage and our district is consolidated with the Watson Chapel School District, our increased funding could build the Watson Chapel High School — or expand the Friendship Charter School facilities, either of which may or may not provide our students with the anticipated new Pine Bluff High School facilities.
Our desire is that local control be restored on or before Nov. 8, 2023, with an elected school board — with the entire Pine Bluff School District community’s input — who would determine the needs of our new facilities and restore the academic excellence and fiscal solvency we once had.
In closing, we feel the upcoming millage is premature in that on Nov. 8, 2023, the Pine Bluff School District may not exist. I would NOT go to a bank or mortgage company and sign for a 30-year mortgage for $64,340,000 without guarantee of receiving a home to live in at closing. The Pine Bluff School District stakeholders deserve to know that before passing a $64,340,000 millage on Aug. 8, 2023, as the Pine Bluff School District may not have a district to build a new high school on Nov. 8, 2023.
Please vote AGAINST the upcoming millage to preserve our future of rebuilding of our district together — after local control is restored.
CHARLINE WRIGHT, RETIRED EDUCATOR, STAKEHOLDER IN THE PINE BLUFF SCHOOL DISTRICT