From the Arkansas Advocate:
The Arkansas PBS Commission named Sajni Kumpuris as the public television network’s interim director during a special meeting Tuesday.
Kumpuris, who currently serves as Arkansas PBS’ education director and production director, will assume her new role on May 26. She replaces Courtney Pledger. The public media network announced in April that Pledger would leave her position in May.
In a statement issued Tuesday evening, Kumpuris said she was “honored” to step into the new role.
“This organization has long been a vital resource for our communities, and I’m committed to continuing our mission of providing high-quality educational content and programming that reflects the values and needs of all Arkansans,” she said. “I look forward to working with our incredible team as we build on our legacy of service and innovation.”
The majority of the eight-member board voted in favor of Kumpuris after meeting in executive section for nearly an hour. The voice vote included one audible dissent. Kumpuris will serve in an interim capacity while a national search for a permanent executive director is organized and conducted, Commission Chairman West Doss said during the virtual meeting.
“We’ve had a very good meeting of the commissioners and took the first step towards finding us a new executive director of Arkansas PBS,” Doss said. “We had three excellent candidates with excellent credentials, all internal, and we are all blessed to have them at Arkansas PBS.”
The other two internal candidates considered were Associate Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Jason Kunau and Operations Director DeWayne Wilbur. All three candidates will be considered for the permanent position, Doss said.
The permanent director will succeed Pledger, who joined Arkansas PBS in 2017 and also serves as vice chair of PBS’ 27-member national board of directors.
“It has been my great honor to lead Arkansas PBS through a transformative time that points to the limitless potential of our statewide public media network,” Pledger said in a statement issued last month.
Under Pledger’s leadership, Arkansas PBS expanded its K-12 educational programming, launching “Arkansas AMI” when schools closed during the pandemic. She also “significantly increased the reach and impact” of ArkansasIDEAS, the state’s most-used online professional development platform for teachers, according to an April press release. The network also started broadcasting state high school sports championships.
During her tenure at Arkansas PBS, Pledger also faced multiple conflicts with the state Legislature, including in 2023 when the organization’s regularly scheduled 2022 audit indicated that administrators might have sidestepped state laws related to contract bidding.
Pledger told lawmakers the agency had no intention to break or circumvent state law and had learned from its “mistakes and errors.”
Arkansas PBS’ spending authority has repeatedly faced resistance in the Arkansas House. Appropriations need approval from three-fourths of lawmakers, and PBS’ fiscal year 2026 appropriation required five attempts to get 76 House members’ support.
Earlier this year, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro filed a bill to abolish the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, which oversees Arkansas PBS’ programs and finances, and transfer its powers and authorities to the state education department.
After the bill to abolish the commission passed the Senate in February, Doss and Sullivan said they reached an agreement that led Sullivan to leave the commission alone.
Sullivan, the legislature’s most vocal critic of Arkansas PBS, unsuccessfully tried to reduce the public television station’s spending authority during the 2022 and 2024 fiscal sessions.
The governor appointed Sullivan’s wife, Maria Sullivan, to the commission last year. Doss previously said that Maria Sullivan will lead an Arkansas PBS task force aimed at better serving homeschoolers, which is a high priority for her husband.
The commission will next meet on June 5.
