Beginning this fall, the Pine Bluff School District will operate just one high school and one junior high school “in order to be good fiscal agents,” Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree announced in a video released Wednesday, a little less than two years after Dollarway schools officially became part of the district.
Barbaree announced her “intention” to close Jack Robey Junior High School and to have all seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students attend the present Robert F. Morehead Middle School campus, adding that the present Dollarway High School could be used to hold some of the students. Meanwhile, all 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students will attend Pine Bluff High School.
Barbaree said in the video that she met with each campus principal and visited all nine district campuses to inform faculty and staff of the upcoming changes, making good on a statement she made after a school board work session last Thursday when she publicly indicated that the district cannot financially support so many campuses.
Officials said the decisions announced Wednesday were required in order for the district to leave state control.
“I want to be clear that the main reason for closing Jack Robey is for financial reasons,” Barbaree told The Commercial. “We received a quote for a new HVAC system, and we would use ESSER [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief] funding, but if we put in a new HVAC system, we’d have to replace the roof. The quote for that is $12 [million] to $13 million.”
Jack Robey, located on South Olive Street, opened in 1986 as Pine Bluff Junior High School and was renamed in honor of the late Pine Bluff School District superintendent the following year. Morehead, located on Fluker Avenue, was renovated from the old Townsend Park Elementary in 1999 after a 1997 fire damaged the old campus.
Dollarway High was renovated from the old Dollarway Junior High School in 2009. It was named after Morehead, a board member in the Dollarway School District, in 2010, then was converted to Dollarway High in 2016 after the Dollarway School District was forced to close the old campus on Dollarway Road.
The Morehead and Dollarway High campuses are newer, more conducive to learning and don’t cost as much to maintain as Jack Robey, Barbaree explained.
The superintendent added that merging the Dollarway and Pine Bluff High student bodies was best for the students, based on finances and the classroom experience. Pine Bluff High currently enrolls 583 students in grades 10-12, and Dollarway High enrolls 163 in the same grades.
All high school and junior high athletic teams and activity clubs will be known as the Pine Bluff Zebras, Barbaree said.
“We cannot afford to function as two high schools,” Barbaree said. “We have a little over 100 students at Dollarway High, and we can’t staff that when we have another high school that can take those students in. It’s not fair to the teams at Dollarway struggling to get participation up in sports and other activities. They don’t have the facilities and such things that Pine Bluff High has.”
Geographically, the entire Pine Bluff School District will be represented with the mergers, Barbaree said.
STAFFING
Some staff members will be reassigned and some positions will be eliminated as a result of the mergers, Barbaree revealed in the video.
“It is not my intention to do a RIF,” she said, referring to a reduction-in-force. “However, I will recommend to the school board … to non-renew our faculty that are non-licensed. I know we are going to need some of our non-licensed employees, so some of those decisions will be made as soon as possible as far as hiring back, based on student needs.”
BUILDINGS
Barbaree reiterated the district’s plan to build a new campus, clarifying that a location has not yet been determined. Public sentiment, however, has favored a rebuild of the present Pine Bluff High School at 711 W. 11th Ave.
Barbaree said that most of the buildings at Pine Bluff High School must be demolished, regardless where the district decides to construct a new campus. This is because the cost-share agreement with the Arkansas Department of Education to construct a new high school is based on a space replacement.
It is possible that the Pine Bluff School District's elementary schools will be reconfigured, Barbaree added. Presently prekindergarten students attend Forrest Park/Greenville Preschool, and children in grades kindergarten through six attend Broadmoor, James Matthews, Southwood and 34th Avenue elementaries.
Dollarway High School is shown in this undated file photo. Pine Bluff School District Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree announced Wednesday, March 1, 2023 that the building will no longer operate as a high school beginning in the 2023-24 school year. However, she said, the campus could be used to house junior high students in addition to the Robert F. Morehead campus across the street. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)