Pine Bluff stays on state radar for schools

The state Board of Education decided Thursday to continue to keep a close eye on the Pine Bluff School District, which has nearly half of its traditional schools in academic trouble.

The 4,016-student district has hired a school-improvement specialist, who will start in December, and plans to restart search efforts for a permanent superintendent in January. It has cut ties with all of its consultant contracts and strengthened its lines of authority.

But the district will maintain quarterly reporting on its progress to an Education Board committee until at least the end of this school year. The Education Board's next update in February will include student-achievement data.

Pine Bluff High, Jack Robey Junior High and Belair Elementary schools have been labeled by the state as academically distressed, meaning less than half of the students scored at proficient levels on state math and literacy exams over the past three years. The designation has placed not only those schools but also the entire district in jeopardy of a state Education Board takeover.

A takeover could mean the removal of Pine Bluff's locally elected School Board and/or the replacement of the superintendent.

"They've made progress in part because of the scrutiny from the state Board of Education," said Richard Wilde, school-improvement unit manager for the Arkansas Department of Education. "There is a positive effect having the district come before the board or the academic subcommittee."

Pine Bluff district leaders addressed the full board Thursday to report on the district's progress concerning whether the local School Board, district administrators and school leadership help or hurt progress at the schools.

The School Board is not distracting the work of the administration to improve the schools, Wilde said. But the elected body was not in full support of the administration, he said. The school principals also have more autonomy in addressing problems, and the three academically distressed schools are fully staffed, said Alesia Smith, the district's chief school reform officer.

The district has been using a University of Virginia school-improvement model, which Education Department officials have said has helped. The university has committed to the Pine Bluff district a year at a time and has had a better relationship with the district this year, Wilde said.

The School Improvement Unit is working alongside the University of Virginia to have a unified plan to elevate student achievement.

Smith told the Education Board about administrators' use of data to improve learning. Pine Bluff district leaders are also trying to bring in the community through public forums and parent meetings and to increase teacher morale by including incentives and professional development, she said.

The greatest challenge has been restructuring the school district in three areas: business and finance, human resources and exceptional education, said T.C. Wallace, the interim district leader.

"I think the final thing is that progress is being made," he said. "Slow but sure. We've identified and prioritized the challenges. We're focusing on those three areas and continuing to make progress."

Wallace, who is a resident of Nashville, Tenn., but lives in Pine Bluff during the week, said he earned a five-year superintendent certification in Arkansas last month. He has been at the helm of the school district since March, shortly after the local School Board dismissed its previous superintendent, Linda Watson.

The School Board has extended Wallace's contract through June 30 "for some stability," said Henry Dabner, the board president.

The district still is working to address many challenges, including a power struggle among administrators, Wilde said. The district has four new directors with different responsibilities, and they often made decisions without realizing the impact they would have on one another, he said.

"There still is a little work to be done on that competitiveness," he said. "That process is recent and still in the developmental stage. They're doing it, but they're still having to practice it."

Education Department staff members are looking at whether the Pine Bluff district has aligned its curriculum to the learning standards, he said.

Education Board member Vicki Saviers of Little Rock asked what the Education Department staff members were doing to turn around "shocking" teacher absenteeism rates at the district. The district has begun reporting how many times its teachers are not there, whether it's because of an illness or for professional development, Wilde said.

"It's to call it out into the open so that you can begin to strategize in terms of how to address this issue," he said. "It's a leading indicator that your teachers aren't feeling the same sense of urgency that you are."

Metro on 11/13/2015