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Editor's note: On July 1, the Dollarway School District will be annexed into the Pine Bluff School District after 107 years as a separate entity. The Arkansas Board of Education on Dec. 10 voted unanimously to unite the two state-controlled districts, as state officials determined that Dollarway schools had not fully met the criteria to return to local control after five years under state Department of Education control. All Dollarway schools, however, will remain in operation for the 2021-22 school year.
This is the first of a three-part series examining the merger of the two districts:
Sustainability, efficiency, resources and right-sized.
Those terms were commonly used among leaders of the Pine Bluff and Dollarway school districts when they were asked what their impending annexation would look like.
For one, it's a merger that covers a large portion of Pine Bluff, as well as Jefferson County. The Pine Bluff district enrolled 2,799 pre-kindergarten-through-12th grade students for the 2020-21 school year, and the Dollarway district served 901 for a total of 3,700. In the 2015-16 school year, more than 4,300 students were enrolled in the Pine Bluff district and nearly 1,200 in Dollarway.
School identity, long known to be a source of pride for communities across the U.S., will remain intact, as will the existing campuses in both districts. Students in the current Dollarway schools – James Matthews Elementary, Robert F. Morehead Middle and Dollarway High – will remain Cardinals, while Zebras and Fillies continue to roam the halls of Pine Bluff School District campuses (with the exception of Jack Robey Junior High, whose athletic teams are known as the Colts).
Cardinal red and white will remain primary colors in the soon-to-be-unified Pine Bluff School District, which will maintain its name.
The annexation begs a question that Barbara Warren, the state-appointed superintendent for both districts, says she hears all the time: What will it take for all campuses to remain in operation beyond the 2021-22 school year?
Residents in the Dollarway district feared closure of a high school known for its athletic prowess – the football team won five state championships in 1988-93, for example – and possibly other campuses for years leading to the state board's annexation order, but the educational centerpiece of their district and the grade schools feeding into it will continue to welcome kids.
"We see the Pine Bluff School District [as a unified entity] having nine campuses, so there is a future for the Northside campuses with sustained support," said Warren, whose first anniversary as Pine Bluff district superintendent falls on the day Dollarway officially annexes. "Anything that can benefit any building to keep a school open and viable is sustained support.
"The goal is to continue with the buildings as long as they are sustainable. The district will assess the sustainability of campuses. All nine campuses will be here and sustained."
The Pine Bluff district operates the other six campuses – Forrest Park/Greenville Preschool, Broadmoor Elementary, Southwood Elementary, 34th Avenue Elementary, Jack Robey Junior High and Pine Bluff High.
How the district(s) got here
The Arkansas Department of Education took control of the Dollarway district on Dec. 10, 2015, citing academic and fiscal distress. The district's board had just been reinstated 15 months earlier after the ADE took control of Dollarway in June 2012, the district having failed to comply with state accreditation requirements for two straight years, according to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article.
Warren explained that state officials discovered several audit findings that jeopardized Dollarway's academic and financial standings in 2015.
"The district worked really hard to improve its academic standing, and our audits have revealed no findings of academic trouble," Warren said. "We have worked as efficiently as possible, but we have been losing students over the years. While our academics have improved, the immediate challenge has been our fiscal issues. If we continued [to operate separately], we would have been in a position where we wouldn't have the funds to do what we needed to do. Ultimately, you have to have the money to operate."
Unless a district meets exit criteria, which are standards needed to return to local control, the state education board after five years must return it to local governance such as a district board of trustees, annex it into another district or consolidate it with another district to create an all-new district.
According to a Dec. 11, article, state education Secretary Johnny Key said Dollarway "has made great strides" under Warren, noting progress in its academic program and financial management.
"The district has made significant progress both fiscally and academically," Key said at the time of the board vote. "Dollarway now has stronger financial management policies, practices and procedures. Teachers have benefited from an improved salary schedule. Dollarway has right-sized its campus footprint to serve its student community better."
School sustainability
Leaders in both Pine Bluff and Dollarway districts have made decisions to reduce the number of schools in operation in recent years, given the decline in enrollment and population of the area. As of 2000, the Dollarway district operated five campuses – Matthews, Pinecrest and Townsend Park elementary, Dollarway Junior High (now Morehead Middle) and Dollarway High. Since then, Pinecrest has shuttered, Dollarway High moved from its Dollarway Road campus to the old junior high location on Fluker Avenue, and Morehead Middle is now housed in the former Townsend Park Elementary building across from Dollarway High.
Since 2015, Pine Bluff district officials have closed Oak Park Elementary, W.T. Cheney Elementary, Belair Middle and Southeast Middle Schools.
"For any school district, sustainability is making sure that we are efficient in using our resources for our faculty and number of students we serve, and where they need to be," Warren said. "We would want to have a school sustained as long as possible."
The enrollment of a district largely determines the amount of state and federal funding it receives.
"Most of the time when a school is no longer sustainable, it usually relates to the loss of students," said Melvin Bryant, assistant superintendent for the Dollarway district. "When the student population drops where you can no longer have students or resources, that's what usually leads to a school no longer being sustainable.
"What a lot of people fail to understand is, the right-sized intervention will prevent student dropout. You can't connect with students if you can't keep them in school."
Sustainability would be tied to a school's efficiency and accessibility, Warren said. For example, a student who resides in the former Altheimer Unified School District, which annexed with Dollarway in 2006, would be better served attending school in one of the Dollarway campuses, rather than attending a campus within the current Pine Bluff district boundaries.
"If you're from Wabbaseka [a town whose district merged with then-Altheimer-Sherrill in 1993], and you're going to Southwood Elementary, that's coming from a long way," Warren said. "Access to a school is very important."
There is a lone exception regarding proximity: Come July 1, Forrest Park/Greenville Preschool will serve all prekindergarten students in the conjoined Pine Bluff district.
"We have boundary lines that may make one school closer to where you live be in a different zone," Warren said. "That's all tied to tax collections and a few other factors. Right now, we will work with the zones we have. We have to make certain that we have the resources and staff in each location. We have to consider our specific situation."
It is possible the newly annexed Pine Bluff district can be returned to local control and a new school board be established by September 2023. Warren addressed the question of what the district must do to prove it is financially solvent and academically strong enough to exit state control.
"When you have two school districts that had all of these challenges, you make sure you have safeguards in place to make sure you have certified teachers," Warren said. "We're working toward being a district that will use its resources in an efficient way. With the resources on the Pine Bluff side, it's a great benefit to all the schools. Resources are being shared across the district, and we've seen a type of growth that shows positive achievements. Academically and fiscally, we're more streamlined and more efficient with a growing focus on student-centered programming."
Friday: District leaders examine parental and community involvement, as well as mechanisms to improve academic performance.
