I cannot stay out of the paper these days

10Aug09

even if I try. Neither can my mother-in-law. She’s a pimp: three front page stories in Sunday’s Pine Bluff Commercial:

COALITION HOPES TO LAND CHARTER SCHOOL IN PINE BLUFF (8/9/09)

At the end of this month members of a coalition to bring a new charter school to Pine Bluff will find out whether their efforts paid off to land the school over West Memphis and Blytheville. The Coalition to Bring KIPP Delta Public Schools to Pine Bluff organized last month after KIPP Delta Inc. informed the state Department of Education it intended to open a school in one of the three cities.

Joy Blankenship, executive director of Pine Bluff Downtown Development Inc., said her daughter-in-law, Dr. Ginny Blankenship, started the coalition. Dr. Blankenship is director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Little Rock, but grew up in Pine Bluff. She was unavailable for comment.

But Joy Blankenship offered some insight as to why Dr. Blankenship started the effort. “She just feels strongly about the community that she grew up in and wants to help it,” Joy Blankenship said. . . .

There is one other open-enrollment charter school in Pine Bluff, Hope Academy, which opened in 2007 and serves grades five through eight. Director Earl Glass said he would welcome KIPP to Pine Bluff. “I feel that you can’t provide too many options for children to be educated,” he said. “KIPP has a beautiful history of success so I’m not against them. Much of what we do has been patterned from what they’ve done.” Glass said Scott Shirey, executive director of KIPP Delta Public Schools, was more than happy to help — “whatever he can provide he gives it to us.”

KIPP AIMS TO PUT KIDS ON PATH TO COLLEGE (8/9/09)

According to KIPP, more than 90 percent of its students are minorities and more than 80 percent of KIPP students are eligible for the federal free and reduced-price meals program. Students are accepted regardless of prior academic record, conduct or socioeconomic background. They are admitted through a lottery. KIPP maintains that after four years, 100 percent of eighth grade classes nationally outperformed the local district averages in math and reading/English. More than 80 percent of students who complete eighth grade at KIPP attend college.

KIWANIS CLUB LEARNS ABOUT DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT (8/9/09)

Revitalizing downtown has been the mission of Pine Bluff Downtown Development for 21 years. Joy Blankenship, the group’s executive director, spoke to the Kiwanis Club recently about the progress being made to improve the city’s image and economy.

“We in Pine Bluff must build a productive and skilled work force that will contribute to the tax base and reduce social and economic costs of poverty,” she said. Downtown Development partnered with the city and county governments and with the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County to accomplish their goals, she said.

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