PBSD approves July-to-June calendar
The Pine Bluff School District will be the first in Jefferson County to have classes from July to June, starting this summer.
Board members in a special meeting Monday unanimously approved what Chairman Sederick Charles Rice called a modified extended calendar (and others an “Early Start” calendar). The move shortens the summer break in the district from 11 weeks to seven, and the first day of the 2024-25 school year is now set for July 31, at least two weeks earlier than usual.
District leaders including Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree and Personnel Policy Committee Chairman Kourtney Smith have touted the benefits of a longer school year, including reducing the loss of learning and longer breaks within the school year to reduce stress among students and teachers.
According to a letter Smith sent to teachers districtwide, the draft that PBSD board members approved was the calendar of choice among 56.9% of faculty members who voted.
“The Early Start calendar will be new for us as a district, but based on the feedback from the majority of our district, community and parents, this is something we are willing to try,” Smith wrote in the letter.
With the new calendar, according to the letter, basic teacher contracts will remain at 190 days, students will report for 178 days of instruction, pay dates will remain on the 10th and 25th of every month, and all salaries will still be divided by 24 payments.
“During this transition year, you will receive your normal four checks in the summer to fulfill [the] 2023-2024 contract, plus a July 25 check which will start your first payment of the new contract/ calendar year 2024-2025,” Smith wrote.
Among other highlights of the early start calendar:
∎ Professional development days begin June 24;
∎ Labor Day break is now Aug. 29-Sept. 4 (five class days);
∎ Parent-teacher conferences are Sept. 10 and Feb. 11, 2025;
∎ Extended breaks include fall (Oct. 21-25), Thanksgiving (Nov. 25-29), Christmas (Dec. 23-Jan. 3, 2025), Presidents Day (Feb. 14 and 17), spring (March 19-28, 2025), Easter (April 18 and 21, 2025) and
Memorial Day (May 23, 26-27).
The last day of school is scheduled for June 6, 2025. This year’s last day is scheduled for May 29.
Barbaree added the district will make sure students will still have access to meals over the summer and is working with the Boys and Girls Club of Jefferson County on “interventions” for children to be announced.
THREE MORE YEARS
The seven-member PBSD board also extended Barbaree’s contract for three more years, through the end of the 2026-27
school year.
Barbaree has been superintendent since January 2023, when the Arkansas Board of Education appointed her on an interim basis. Barbaree helped the district return to local control after five years under the guidance of the state board and its commissioner (now Jacob Oliva), successfully requested voters pass a request to increase and unify the millage rate to fund construction of a new high school, and led the merger of the district’s secondary schools.
“I’m just thrilled,” said Barbaree, who grew up in Pine Bluff and graduated from Watson Chapel High School. “It’s crazy. I know I wanted to do this, but it feels so good to be secure and supported.”
Rice called Barbaree a highly qualified individual who is credentialed on state and school district levels.
“She’s a jewel, and a great find for the school district,” Rice said. “We’re excited to be working with her.”
REQUESTING WAIVER
Barbaree said she would request a waiver from the Education Department to adjust its calendar from 178 days to 1,068 hours of instruction. The department requires schools to offer a minimum of either the days or hours count.
The PBSD lost four days of instruction Jan. 16-19 due to a snowstorm. Pine Bluff High School was also closed Jan. 12 due to a lack of power.
“There was a possibility that the district will have enough hours completed at the end of the school year, but we’re not doing hours,” Barbaree said. “We’re requesting the state waive what we have to go to the hourly calendar. This way we will have provided enough hours.”
The 1,068-hour minimum amounts to 6 hours per instruction day. Barbaree said elementary students receive 6.5 hours of class time per day, and secondary students 6 hours, 10 minutes.
Had the waiver not been requested, the PPC would have recommended to the PBSD to make up the four snow days at the end of the year.
PERSONNEL MOVES
The district accepted resignations from high school family and consumer sciences teacher Shena Combs (effective June 30), junior high math teacher Terry Newman (effective Feb. 16), high school special education teachers Shawn Mitchell (retroactive to Jan. 26) and James Norman (retroactive to Feb. 5), junior high English teacher Irma Strong (effective Feb. 16), and Southwood Elementary due process secretary Takelia Liddell (retroactive to Jan. 25).
Retirement letters from high school secretary Wilma Allen (retroactive to Jan. 24) and James Matthews Elementary paraprofessional Lonnie Kelsey (effective Jan. 31) were accepted.
The PBSD has hired Jaleesa Harroway, Malik Staten, Sheunta Johnson and Marquis Oliver as security members. They replace Marquette Randolph, Adrian Dorn, Ashley Coleman and Deron Strickland, respectively.