PINE BLUFF, Ark. — The Pine Bluff School District has full local control again for the first time in over five years, after a 7-0 vote by the state board of education during a meeting held in Pine Bluff.
Pine Bluff School District Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree and other administration members spent hours presenting their case to the board. In that presentation, benchmarks on growth and academics, and the newly passed millage for a new high school were discussed.
"Nervous energy is there, I think I'm more nervous now talking to you than I was talking to the board," Barbaree explained.
Ahead of that meeting, state board members toured schools across the district, and we were there for the tour of the high school.
"It's done my heart a lot of good to spend some time on campus," state board member Lisa Hunter said. "The spirit of students is still very high."
The state originally took over the district five years ago, in September 2018, while the district was experiencing financial distress.
"Our school was in despair," Barbaree said. "The state department said you're not educating your kids, and you're not able to financially support them."
Since then, work has been done, which led them to this moment.
"We've been preparing for this day for months. We've studied, we prepared, we prayed," Sederick Charles Rice, Chairman of the PBSD board, said. "Our only purpose here is to make sure that we serve our students, and that our students succeed."
As part of the board's decision to give full local control to PBSD, there are still things the district has to do.
They'll need to check in with the state consistently.
Even with things to still do, this is a welcome sight for those fighting to build up the district.
"We're trying to build a system that's not going to go away again," Barbaree said. "I won't be here forever, the board won't be here forever, so we have to have that system in place where board members come in and say, 'okay, this is the right way and we're going to continue to keep going the right way.'"