The Pine Bluff School Board held their monthly meeting Monday night inside of the Little Theater on the campus of Pine Bluff High School where they covered numerous financial issues that are facing the district.
Several contracts and agreements with companies were made at the meeting to include a Memorandum of Understanding to enter a partnership with Central Maloney, Inc. to allow students to attend welding classes. Central Maloney will pay for half of the costs of student education while the District will pay the other half. Students who complete the program will be able to be hired by Central Maloney, Inc. once they graduate from high school with start off pay beginning around $20 per hour.
A school calendar was also presented and passed by the board for the 2023-24 school year, which will be a traditional calendar, but discussion was raised about the possibility of moving to a year-round calendar in the 2024-25 school year after the Personnel Policy Committee said that a year-round calendar may fit the needs of the community better than a traditional calendar.
Pine Bluff School District Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree spoke with Deltaplex News following the meeting to discuss the possibility of a year-round calendar and more.
The new LEARNS Act that was recently signed into law by Governor Sarah Huckabee-Sanders was a topic of discussion at the meeting as the district will receive $1.8 Million to go towards teachers’ salaries. Any teacher not making $50,000 per year will receive a raise up to the $50,000 mark while any teacher making $50,000 or above will receive a $2,000 raise. The $1.8 Million will cover those salary adjustments for the District.
In order for teachers to receive that money they must be a licensed teacher. If they are not a licensed teacher they must be working in a program that will lead them towards receiving their license, or their contract will not be renewed for the 2023-24 school year. Barbaree spoke about that as well.
The Board also voted to add make up days for days missed due to a catastrophic event into the school calendar for the 2023-24 school year due to AMI day rules changing under the learns act. AMI days will still be able to be utilized, but any school days missed will have to be made up with in-person schooling. Barbaree went into more detail on that subject.
An $11.6 Million contract was amended to provide LED lighting and updated HVAC equipment for Broadmoor Elementary, 34th Avenue Elementary, James Matthews Elementary, and Southwood Elementary. The contract was amended to add LED lighting to each school, which will save the District money in utility costs. The amendment also allows for a $1.6 Million payment to be made to Performance Services for work already completed on the project.
An additional part of that contract amendment was to remove Jack Robey Jr. High from the contract after inspections showed the building needs $12 Million worth of repairs to the roof and HVAC systems. Barbaree said that is what led to the decision to no longer use the Jack Robey facilities.
It was also discussed that if that if the district plans to build a new high school a millage is going to have to be passed in order to make it happen with the cost of construction rapidly rising. Barbaree spoke about that as well.
The board also approved a $17,545 contract with East Harding Construction to weatherize the McFadden Gym.
Additionally, they tabled discussions for an $18,000 payment for Johnson Controls in the Trice Building on the campus of Pine Bluff High School. The building will be utilized more in the 2023-24 school year than it has been used in the past. Johnson Controls will allow HVAC operations to be controlled from a central location, which would allow control of temperatures inside the classrooms to be the same for each classroom, lowering utility costs.
Discussions regarding attorney fees the district has been paying for a former employee was also tabled until the April meeting.
