CONWAY -- As Courtney Pledger begins her fifth fiscal year at the helm of the state's education network Arkansas PBS, the scene in the rearview mirror is surreal: a tumultuous beginning that fractured relationships and threatened her professional survival, a worldwide pandemic that brought the power of the network to the front lines and the explosion of growth that nearly doubled the system's reach.
Sitting in her Conway office on the University of Central Arkansas campus, the coffee table in front of her is covered with an array of binders, bright flyers promoting the network's shows and magazines produced by the organization.
Pledger's eyes are wide with excitement as she points from one to the other and reads statistics from a prepared spreadsheet.
"We dreamed big in 2017 and we keep doing that. Now we're just expanding on that dream," Pledger said. "As the statewide network, we have the advantage of being able to organize ourselves in an efficient way to serve the state. That looks like Arkansas storytellers. It looks like upping our abilities in public safety. It looks like civics awareness and education, engagement for adults and students. It looks like government transparency. It looks like things that bring people together over things that they love."
And the covid-19 pandemic put that dream into overdrive, creating a hand-in-hand partnership with the Arkansas Department of Education to bring education to students and teachers wherever they are, whether at home or in the classroom.
"Arkansas PBS has been a long-time partner in our efforts to provide quality professional development to educators and educational programming for students," Department of Education Secretary Johnny Key said. "Because of this great partnership over the years, we were able to provide critical educational content to students during the pandemic, an effort which garnered praise on the national level. The success of that collaboration resulted in additional learning resources provided this summer to offset the summer learning slide that typically occurs when students are out for summer break."
Pledger is animated as she talks about the new projects underway and the partnerships that were developed as well as those on the horizon.
"It's madness here, but it's creative madness," Pledger said. "We're just all really inspired here. I'm just amazed when I see the time frame from that first conversation to when it all went on the air."
IN THE BEGINNING
With each project and success she talks about, Pledger brags on the Arkansas PBS staff.
"We couldn't have done this without them," she repeats after every mention.
Pledger called out names and titles: Sajni Kumpuris, the network's education director; Ed Leon, chief operating officer and deputy director; Levi Agee, production director; Andrew Bicknell, chief technology officer; Marty Ryall, external relations director; Fred Wiedower, chief financial officer; and Michael Thompson, public affairs.
Pledger holds up promotional material and names the teams directly responsible for seeing the creative endeavor through to reality.
She points outside her door where her executive assistant, Casey Jackson-Aceituno, sits.
"She's terrific," she says then grits her teeth. "I'm so afraid someone will steal her from me."
Pledger even praises the state Legislature for approving a new future-facing position -- chief content officer -- early in her tenure.
"Their foresight should be credited with many of the strides we have made in growing the digital and broadcast reach of Arkansas PBS," she said. "We were able to bring in Greg Gerik who has set us on a course for success in content, programming and marketing."
Pledger's excitement is starkly different from the stress and worry she carried in the beginning of her tenure.
The Little Rock native was appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2017. Pledger, who had become a noted television and film producer, had been the executive director of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival since 2012.
Turmoil within the organization and its fundraising arm, the Arkansas PBS foundation, engulfed the network after Pledger took the office. Several employees left the institution, while others took their complaints up the ladder.
Pledger, not accustomed to state procurement procedures, made significant mistakes, leading to a legislative audit citing the agency for several deficiencies including improper bidding, hiring outside legal counsel, and paying a vendor for training without documentation.
Amid the turbulence, the foundation board removed Pledger as chief executive officer of the foundation after she fired Mona Dixon, the foundation's development officer. After several months of negotiations between the foundation and the network's board of commissioners, the foundation agreed to reinstate Pledger's voting rights on the board and both entities agreed to hire an outside CEO for the foundation.
After a nationwide search in late 2020, Marge Betley was hired as the chief executive officer of the Arkansas PBS Foundation.
"We have a fantastic partnership," Pledger said. "Marge Betley, I have so much respect for her. She's smart. She came in the door completely understanding what Arkansas PBS was here to do. She is just a valued partner."
Betley echoed Pledger's sentiments, adding that the relationship is essential to the success of both the foundation and the network. The relationship is built on collaboration and communication, Betley said.
"I am delighted to be at Arkansas PBS Foundation and am really excited about the momentum that has been created at Arkansas PBS and the great work that Courtney is doing," Betley said.
"The more that the foundation understands about, not just the present needs, but also the future vision for Arkansas PBS, the better able we will be to secure the transformative funding required to make it a reality," she said.
Pledger said she knew from the beginning that she wouldn't have an easy road.
"It's a very, very different day here. I look at it -- and I knew it then -- change is hard," Pledger said. "It's hard for the people who are leading it. It's hard for all the people in the organization because it means we step out of our comfort zone. You have to keep going back to: Why are we doing this? Why is Arkansas PBS here? How can we really, really be able to do our jobs well? That changes. It was different when this network was founded in the 1960s and a decade later and a decade after that."
RISE AND SHINE
Pledger excitedly holds out a project impact sheet with Rise and Shine on its header then ticks off various facts such as the number of video views, total reach and engagement rate.
Rise and Shine -- the locally produced product of a partnership with the Arkansas Education Department -- provides daily summer programming for K-5 students that aligns with Arkansas academic standards. Available by broadcast signal and online from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. weekdays, Rise and Shine stars a handful of Arkansas Teachers of the Year teaching mini-lessons.
Pledger breaks into a wide grin as she flips the sheet over to a comprehensive list of the numerous community organizations and schools that receive the weekly Power Packets mailed every week.
"Rise and Shine is going back to reinforce those learning targets in ways that are entertaining for kids that they will watch and enjoy during the summer," she said.
In a wide-open work room, hundreds of bulging large envelopes are stacked in the outgoing mail section.
Sajni Kumpuris, the network's director of education, unzips an orange plastic pencil pouch and pulls out its contents: a miniature magnifying glass, a box of eight crayons, a tiny flashlight, plastic connected counter blocks and a deck of Maverick playing cards.
"They had a lesson using cards," she explained.
The pencil pouches, along with a colorful workbook -- collectively known as the Power Pack -- are sent out each week to families that request them as well as to numerous community organizations and schools.
When the six-week program is completed, about 53,574 Power Packs will have been printed and mailed.
"Kids have a lot of options. We knew that we needed to make this as engaging and as fun as possible while learning at the same time," Sajni said. "And we know that this age group wants to learn. They're at that age where they can enjoy something like a math problem or literacy. They want things that engage their minds and helps them critically think so we gave it to them."
Rise and Shine is only the latest product of the partnership born out of the pandemic. When Arkansas schools closed after the covid-19 virus hit the state in March, Pledger's team joined with the Department of Education to produce and develop alternative means of instruction to keep pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students actively learning at home for the rest of last school year.
"Because of covid, we had to think outside the box, and in many ways, we have stretched our abilities and creativity, implemented best practices, and improved learning options for students," said Key, the state's education secretary.
Pledger said she has immense respect and gratitude for Key as well as Stacy Smith, a deputy commissioner in the Arkansas Elementary and Secondary Education division.
"We are breaking new ground together nationally with this partnership and the education content coming out of it, with potential for seriously meaningful impact on Arkansas' kids," Pledger said. "The imagination demonstrated by these two teams is incredible to watch and the programming would not be happening without the combined creativity of both."
THE TOWERS
Pledger drew a map of the state in the air with her finger. She pointed down south, then the River Valley Region.
"Just prior to the pandemic, I looked around and thought, 'You know, they keep saying we cover 94% of the state.' I said to myself, 'Eh, I don't believe that,'" Pledger said.
She called in Andrew Bicknell, the network's new chief technology officer, and gave him an assignment: "Map it. Figure out who we're reaching and who we're not and why. What could we do about it if we had the resources?"
The resulting study revealed that the network's broadcast signal only reached about 76% of the state's population.
After covid-19 hit, the governor called Pledger, concerned that not everyone would have access to Arkansas AMI lessons because of lack of broadband access or a broadcast tower in their area.
"He said, 'It would be great to be able to fix that.'," Pledger said.
What followed nearly doubled the network's number of signal towers in the state.
The network received $6.4 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds to pay for expanding the network's towers from six to 11. The five new sites include Lee Mountain near Russellville, Yancy, Forrest City, Gaither and Rich Mountain near Mena.
Once completed, the transmitters will fill the majority of the existing gaps and nearly 100% of Arkansas will have access to the network's broadcasts.
"This is a major game changer," Pledger said. "We went on line with the first one, just recently in Russellville area. There were more than 124,000 people in the Arkansas River Valley that had not received us over the air prior to that and, suddenly, Bing! Here we are. The others will go online between now and summer, late spring, of 2022."
THE FUTURE
The growth of the broadcast reach as well as the expansion of the network's online presence opens the window for untold possibilities, Pledger said.
She smiles and sweeps her arms out wide.
"Our digital engagement has exploded," she said. "We have a livestream of all four channels. You can watch us on your iPad or on your phone. It's endless."
And, if she learned anything from the ongoing pandemic, it was that partnerships are key.
The network is engaging local and national partners to produce Arkansas programs for and about Arkansans and Pledger has a dream of establishing a permanent physical presence in various Arkansas communities.
"We want our beautiful state reflected in what we produce. Education is at the center of everything that we do, whether it's K-12 or just the communities at large. Lifelong learners is what PBS is about," Pledger said. "I think that throughout this covid period, we've put it [education] even more at the center out of serving a big need in the community. It's interesting. You look back and say that happened, then that happened. It's like a cycle of relevance that just keeps presenting itself."
When asked what specific projects are in the works for the future, Pledger smiled slyly, but would not divulge details.
"Hopefully, we'll be talking about a post-covid period sometime soon," she said. "The future looks bright. The future is looking for the next challenge, looking for the next thing we can pioneer, looking for the next innovation, looking for the next connection with different communities and different organizations. It's just continuing on the path we set out on in 2017."