The Pine Bluff School District will provide maternity/paternity leave of eight weeks for qualified employees after a unanimous board vote at Monday night's regular meeting.
The seven-member board approved the request from the certified Personnel Policy Committee for the district. According to the policy, Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree said, once the teacher on leave is paid, the Arkansas Department of Education will reimburse the PBSD for half of that.
"So when the new governor came in, there was a change that all government agencies were going to provide 12 weeks of maternity leave, paid. School districts are not required to do that, but we were encouraged to participate," Barbaree said. "If we did, we would get half of that back from the Department of Education."
New grants
The PBSD has been awarded a share of a $9.9 million federal grant called Seamless Transition for Arkansas, which is aimed at improving the economic self-sufficiency of 14- to 18-year-old students with disabilities in Arkansas, according to the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions.
"The purpose is for preparing all students for the future, and all means all," Barbaree said. "The students that are in our classes that are severe and (about whom) we are concerned, 'Will they know how to work after school?' or 'Will they know what they need to do?', this will help with them getting job opportunities before they graduate from high school."
In addition, the PBSD will receive a federal GEAR UP Grant. GEAR UP is an acronym for Getting Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs.
"I'm very excited about this part because we will start with our students that next year will be in sixth grade," Barbaree said. "We will track them for seven years and provide supports to them with this grant."
The amount of the grant allocated to the PBSD was not announced, but according to the U.S. Department of Education, GEAR UP is designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.
Be hired
Fourteen Pine Bluff High School students were offered two or more jobs each across skilled-trade industries while attending a Be Pro Be Proud Draft Day seminar earlier this month in Pine Bluff, according to career coach Denesha Evans.
Be Pro Be Proud is a statewide initiative helping to bring high school graduates into the American workforce. The students were honored with Showing Your Stripes awards from Barbaree.
Near-perfect attendance for ATLAS
Preliminary data for the writing component of the Arkansas Teaching & Learning Assessment System revealed all or nearly all of eligible students in grades 3-10 took the test.
Under state law, at least 95% of students in a school district must take the annual student assessment. More than 95% in each eligible grade level at all PBSD campuses were tested, including every student in 13 of the 16 elementary classes (grades 3-6 at four schools). Southwood Elementary reported 100% participation in the test.
Next board meeting
A special board meeting has been called for 6:30 p.m. April 3 at the Jordan-Chanay Administrative Building.
Personnel moves
The board approved the hires of Tiffany Cain as a special education teacher (self-contained) at Pine Bluff High School; Yvonne Denton as a special education teacher resource at James Matthews Elementary; and Kcristii Prescott as a special education teacher (self-contained) at Matthews. All will begin their employment July 1.
Pamela Ervin, executive assistant to Barbaree; and Jamie Reid, business manager, have been rehired for the 2024-25 school year.
A resignation letter was accepted from custodian Gene Givens. Retirement letters were accepted from Pine Bluff Junior High teacher and coach Mark Yates (effective June 10) and maintenance personnel Neal Hardin (effective June 28).
A maintenance employee and a security officer were terminated as of March 25.