Government directory/Arkansas/Independent school district
U.S. Census government inventory · ID 178097

Palestine Wheatley School District.

Independent school district in Arkansas · Census county area: St Francis.

Independent school districtSchool districtFunctioning
School system at a glance

Students, schools, and public money.

Election.org connected this entity to its fiscal year 2024 Census finance record by exact government ID and to its 2024–25 NCES district and school directory by exact agency ID.

815students in the finance record
2operating schools connected
$11,880current spending per pupil
Who runs this Arkansas school system

Ryan Halbert is the state-published superintendent.

The statewide directory also names the people responsible for public finance, safety, civil-rights access, special education, nutrition, family services, technology, and public information. Those useful contacts appear first. The source does not publish the school-board roster, so Election.org does not pass administrators off as board members.

Named contacts
10
Mapped board zones
7
Exact state ID
6205000
District leadership

Ryan Halbert

Superintendent

District phone870-581-2646P O Box 790, Palestine, AR, 72372
Who to contact

People responsible for the services families use.

9 current-directory contacts
Public finance

Sandra Jones

Treasurer · Business manager

Public information

Brandon Thomas

Public information

Safety and access

Carey Knowlton

School Safety Coordinator

Student and family services

Casey Herron

Special education & early childhood

Student and family services

Kristi Wilson

Students experiencing homelessness · Foster-care liaison · Family engagement

Civil rights and access

Emily Medford

Section 504 access

Civil rights and access

Tiffany Caldwell

Title IX

Student and family services

Heather Lemons

Child nutrition

District operations

Brandon Williams

Technology Coordinator

How board seats are organized

The state publishes 7 mapped board zones for this district.

These are official election-zone records, not attendance zones. Population values are the source's 2020 Census field where published.

The board roster is still missing

Named administrators are not a substitute for elected governance.

  • Current board-member names, officer roles, seat numbers, terms, and vacancies
  • The exact at-large or zoned election plan when the GIS layer returns no zones
  • Upcoming filings and candidates, certified result history, and campaign disclosures
  • Normalized meetings, agendas, minutes, votes, policies, contracts, vendors, and decision history

Source: Arkansas Department of Education School Personnel Directory and Arkansas Secretary of State school-board zones via the Arkansas GIS Office, checked 2026-08-30. Election.org omits every person-level email, phone, fax, and street address from the personnel export; only district-level contact fields are retained. A dated directory row is not proof of continued service after the snapshot.

Six years of enrollment and school finance

See what changed—not just one year.

Exact federal identifiers connect 6 annual Census records for this system. Source dollars stay visible, while spending changes are also converted to constant 2024 dollars.

Census annual tables ↗
Enrollment8153.0% lower than 2019
Current spending / pupil$11,88024.5% higher than 2019 after inflation · 52.7% higher than 2019 nominal
Total expenditure$11.0M17.8% higher than 2019 · nominal
Debt outstanding$5.8M12.0% lower than 2019 · nominal
Enrollment reported by Census
2019: 840; 2020: 828; 2021: 809; 2022: 807; 2023: 775; 2024: 815849808766201920202021202220232024
Current spending per pupil (2024 dollars)
2019: $9,545; 2020: $9,222; 2021: $10,146; 2022: $9,838; 2023: $12,674; 2024: $11,880$13,157$10,948$8,739201920202021202220232024
Funding mix over time

Federal, state, and local shares

20197.8% F82.8% S9.3% L
20204.0% F91.2% S4.8% L
20218.7% F84.5% S6.7% L
202214.3% F79.2% S6.4% L
202319.3% F73.4% S7.2% L
202414.2% F77.1% S8.7% L
View the 2019–2024 values as a table
YearEnrollmentSpending / pupilTotal revenueTotal expenditureDebt
2019840$7,779$9,583,000$9,354,000$6,575,000
2020828$7,609$15,892,000$17,858,000$6,820,000
2021809$8,764$10,595,000$10,761,000$6,580,000
2022807$9,178$9,255,000$11,927,000$6,705,000
2023775$12,311$10,358,000$12,051,000$7,030,000
2024815$11,880$10,990,000$11,019,000$5,785,000

Source-reported nominal dollars. Amount fields are converted from source thousands to dollars. No inflation adjustment is applied. An exact identifier links published source rows; it does not erase consolidations, closures, reorganizations, or other real institutional changes between years. Constant-dollar comparisons use BLS CPI-U series CUUR0000SA0, annual U.S. city average; this is not a local cost-of-living index. Joined by exact Census PID6 or NCES LEAID; names are never used.

Where the money comes from

$11.0M in reported revenue.

Census finance source ↗
Federal14.2%$1.56M
State77.1%$8.47M
Local8.7%$956,000
Total expenditures$11.0M
Current spending$9.69M
Instruction$5.48M
Support services$3.74M
Capital outlay$990,000
Debt outstanding$5.79M

Fiscal year 2024. Census source amounts are published in thousands of dollars and converted here to dollars; per-pupil fields are published as dollar amounts. Revenue percentages are reproduced from the source.

District contact

PALESTINE WHEATLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Regular public school district that is not a component of a supervisory union

GradesPK12
StatusOpen
Address7950 HWY. 70 WEST, PALESTINE, AR, 72372
Open district website →
Still needed for a complete civic record

The federal layer is useful—but it is not the whole school board.

  • Current board members, officer roles, exact seat numbers, term expirations, present vacancies, and appointment history
  • The next election, filings and candidates, certified result history, and campaign disclosures
  • Address-level lookup against the published school-board-zone polygons and the separate attendance boundary
  • Normalized meeting agendas, minutes, recorded votes, and decision history
  • School-level outcomes, audited contracts and vendors, and inflation-adjusted spending comparisons
The source record

A functioning Census entity.

The Census ACTIVE field is Y for this record.

Census ID
178097
Record type
Independent school district
Classification
School district
School level
Elementary and Secondary
Status
Functioning
Published contact fields

Contact and location

Mailing addressPO BOX 790 · PALESTINE, AR · 72372-0790
Census contact/title fieldSupt
County areaSt Francis

Websites are primarily self-reported and received only limited Census Bureau quality control. County area can mean the area most served or the headquarters county when boundaries cross counties.

Published context

Scale and parent relationship

Estimated enrollment7752023

Evidence boundary

What each source proves—and what it does not.

Established by the published records

  • The entity or system appears in the 2025 Census listing.
  • Its Census category, identifier, and functioning/dormant field.
  • Only the location, function, population, enrollment, and contact fields actually published.
  • The current Arkansas personnel directory reports the superintendent and student-service roles shown above; the separate Secretary of State GIS layer reports the mapped school-board zones returned for this exact LEA ID.

Not established by these records

  • That administrators are school-board members, or that a person remains in the directory role after the dated snapshot.
  • The current board roster, terms, vacancies, election calendar, candidates, results, meeting votes, contracts, or—when no zones are returned—a proven at-large voting plan.
  • The exact geographic service boundary or that a reported website remains current.