Pine Bluff board adopts 2025 budget, approves property sales and services contracts

The Pine Bluff School District Board of Education on Aug. 27 approved the district’s proposed fiscal 2025-26 budget and tax levy and voted to approve a series of administrative contracts and property sales, actions district leaders said are needed to support ongoing construction, special education services and classroom instruction.

The actions matter because they set the district’s funding plan that will appear on a sample ballot ahead of the election, free up funds and property for future capital use, and fund short-term staffing and technology purchases the district says it needs for the school year.

At the start of the meeting the board approved the minutes of the July 22, 2024 meeting. The board then voted to adopt the proposed budget of expenditures for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, and to approve the related sample ballot; the motion was read into the record and carried by voice vote.

The board approved a package of policy changes for Section 7 of the district policy manual but pulled policy 7.5 (purchasing) for further review.

On property matters the board voted to accept the highest offers and approve sales of three district-owned buildings: Oak Park Elementary, Indiana Street Elementary and the downtown administration building. Board members said the transactions were reviewed previously in the facilities committee and the agreements will be returned to the board if any of the sale terms change.

On special education staffing, the board approved a memorandum of understanding with the Arkansas River Educational Service Cooperative (ARESC) to provide three virtual, certified special-education teachers to cover resource and some self-contained minutes. District staff described the arrangement as an interim measure while the district continues recruiting on-site certified teachers; the board approved the ARESC MOU after a motion and voice vote. District presenters said the ARESC agreement is expected to cost about $180,000 for the services described.

The board also approved a purchase-service MOU to secure a contracted specialist to assist with special-education conferences, documentation and teacher support in buildings that currently use long-term substitutes.

Board members approved a broadly bundled set of instructional and technology purchases, described by staff as items funded primarily with ARP/ESSER federal funds. The purchased items listed in the board packet and approved together included: - SchoolStatus (district communication platform) renewal - 95% Group professional development and curriculum resources - Just Right Readers (decodable texts for classroom libraries and take-home use) - REX Academy curriculum for 21st Century Community Learning Center (21CLCC) programming - Progress Learning (two‑year license for assessment/intervention platform) - Replacement of roughly 1,500 Chromebooks and associated carts - Microsoft Surface devices for building leaders and a desktop learning lab at the secondary campus

Separately, the board approved a stipend increase for building testing coordinators from $2,000 to $4,000, with staff saying the higher amount reflects the increased after-hours work associated with testing coordination.

All of the items above were moved, seconded and approved by voice vote during the meeting; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the public transcript. At the end of the public session, board leadership announced the board would go into executive session to discuss a safety assessment and personnel matters.

Not all details were specified in the public record: the board packet listed the purchases and described funding sources as ARP/ESSER for several items; specific sale prices for the three properties were included in the packet but were not read into the public transcript. Where numerical or contract details were not stated aloud, the board packet is the controlling record, staff said.