OPINION | EDITORIAL: Baby steps needed for Pine Bluff School Board


The baby steps continue.

Last week, the state Board of Education voted unanimously to name seven people to a limited-authority school board for the Pine Bluff School District.

In the same way that a student pilot is in control of a plane, with the veteran pilot's hands a short distance away, the new board members will have to refer all the decisions they make to Education Secretary Johnny Key.

That's understandable. Key and his staff put this plane together, piece by piece, and until it's been shown that this limited-authority board doesn't need help keeping it in the air, help will be supplied. There is no magic in the presence of a school board. If there was, the last board would not have run the district into the ground.

And now, of course, conditions are more complicated, what with the addition of a failed Dollarway School District and also with the clock ticking on the state's takeover of the Pine Bluff district.

At the same time that it's not time to turn this combined district over to a full-authority board, it is time to ease in that direction.

Said Key: "The appointment of a limited-authority board marks the next stage of progress for the Pine Bluff School District. The new board members are very impressive and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to their new role. I am encouraged that the students in the Pine Bluff School District will benefit greatly from their leadership, and I look forward to continuing our work with the new board and Superintendent Warren."

The selection of those seven fell to a committee of five individuals out of 30 applicants. The well-known Earlene Collins, former Pine Bluff High School principal, chaired the committee and led the effort to recruit interested and qualified board members.

Rosalind Mouser, a Pine Bluff lawyer who has been actively involved in the direction of the district, praised Collins and the process.

"The economic welfare of Pine Bluff and therefore Jefferson County is dependent on the strongest public school system we can have," Mouser said. We need to have a renewed effort by as many citizens as possible to support not only the Pine Bluff School District but the White Hall School District and the Watson Chapel School District. All school districts can thrive, and if they thrive, our economy in our county ought to thrive."

A solid school district is the place to start, certainly. Without that, families with an opportunity to put down roots in Pine Bluff won't and many of those with an opportunity to leave will. Poof! There goes your local economy. All one has to do is check the census and the school enrollment numbers for the past several years to see that both are dropping. That has to stop. Perhaps the Pine Bluff district is on its way to doing that.


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