Page 3 - TR Hometown Jacksonville June 2017

HOMETOWN JACKSONVILLE • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE THREE RIVERS EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2017 3SS
BUILDING
ON A DREAM
Jacksonville North Pulaski School District focuses on future
BY EMILY EDMISTEN
SPECIAL SECTIONS WRITER
The first school year for the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District has come and gone, and Bryan Duffie, newly hired super- intendent, has his eyes on the next one.
“The goal is that we want to make this a system the community will be proud of,” Duffie said. “It’s a process, and there will be issues to solve and bumps in the road. We strongly believe we’ve had a good year, and we hope to make [the district] better.”
The Jacksonville North Pulaski School District separated from the Pulaski County Special School District in July 2016. During the past year, the new district’s administra- tors, originally led by Superintendent Tony Wood, made strides for a successful first school year.
Duffie, who was the district’s assistant superintendent of support services, will take over July 1 as superintendent.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In May, Jacksonville High School graduated its first class, 187 seniors, at the Jack Stephens Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The seniors were awarded more than $2 million in scholarships from multiple institutions and organizations.
“The district awarded five scholarships to our students,” said Jeremy Owoh, assistant superintendent for curriculum/instruction and desegregation. “I think that was a major plus that we were able to offer those scholarship opportunities in the amount of $2,500 each to them.”
Accomplishments have been made at all levels of the district, especially through the science, technology, engineering and mathematics program in the elementary schools, he said.
“With our middle school, before we start- ed the official school year, we partnered with Pulaski Technical College for STEM camp,
and we continued that this summer,” Owoh said. “That was a major plus for our middle school students.”
Owoh added that during the year, two gifted and talented teachers’ work was published in a major magazine and made presentations at national conferences.
“In high school, we have the Jacksonville Promise with our students,” Owoh said. The Jacksonville Promise is a collaboration be- tween Jacksonville High School and UALR which offers financial assistance to Jackson- ville High School students after graduation.
“A districtwide reading initiative has been very beneficial to us. We partnered with AR Kids Read, where we have volunteers come in our elementary schools to volunteer for one- on-one and small-group reading.”
Other firsts include the band and choir winning awards at local and regional music contests, and several students participating in the regional science fair and spelling bee, as well as other competitions.
Owoh said the district’s major achievement was Jacksonville Middle School’s removal from the academic-distress list.
GROWTH
With a new district comes new school fa- cilities. There are two multipurpose buildings going up at Bayou Meto and Taylor elemen- tary schools. Those facilities should have sub- stantial completion by the end of November, Duffie said.
Site work has started on an elementary school, and the scheduled completion is July 2018. Site work has also started for a new high school. Substantial completion of the high school is scheduled for early 2019, with school projected to start the following August.
“We’re very excited [with the new school district],” Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletch- er said. “I don’t believe there’s a community that understands the value of education as much as we do because we’ve been held back so long and have fought so long. It’s a total
FILE PHOTO/THREE RIVERS EDITION
Bryan Duffie, incoming superintendent of the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District, said he wants to develop the district so it will serve as a beacon of pride in the community for years to come.
buy-in to the community. It is a source of pride.” The buildings are being constructed in anticipation of growth in the school district. Duffie said the current high school can hold around 950-1,000 students, while the new school is projected to hold nearly 1,200-1,300 students. Likewise, the current Tolleson and Arnold elementary schools combined can hold roughly 440-460 students, while the new elementary school will hold an
estimated 650 students.
Duffie said that in five to eight years, a
proposal will be submitted to consolidate Pinewood and Warren Dupree elementary schools and create one school.
DOWN THE ROAD
The administrators’ hope is that the sys- tem is constructing enough buildings to serve the community for years to come.
“There’s so much excitement — some have called this a grand adventure on molding the system to fit the community, student and staff needs,” Duffie said. “What we’re all trying to do here is determine the future of the school system and a lot of students for the next 30, 40 and 50 years.”
Looking down the path that’s being laid, administrators said they feel confident in the direction of growth.
“I can definitely say that if the momentum we started continues, we’ll definitely be a dis- trict where people choose to come and want to come,” Owoh said.
“We’d love to have it perfect right now; that’s the challenge,” Duffie said. “We’d love to fine-tune everything right now, and it takes some time. We just have to work through that. We look forward to building the system with our community throughout the next several years.”
Lighthouse Charter School
FAST FACTS
1Alex Norman, an upcoming sophomore at Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School College Prep Academy, was a finalist in the
Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall, where he joined hand-selected participants from around the world to sing in a choir. The High School Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall challenges elite students to perform at their best. Norman and the oth- er finalists rehearsed and performed under master conductors for representatives from collegiate and professional music programs.
2
3 The charter school has done well in sports, winning a state track meet in 2016, as well as second place in the state for the school’s soccer team. What’s unique about this is the lack of home fields. “The thing is, even though we’ve done well and we’ve won awards, we do not have a basketball gym or a track or a soccer field,” Felton said. “That’s something we brag about inside, because to win track and not have a track and field, we feel is brag- able.” Students have been offered baseball scholarships without baseball fields, band scholarships without an actual band room. “There was a thought to build a gym, but it’s really expensive,” he said. “We spend most on
our students; everything goes to them.”
Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School
College Prep Academy graduated its second class. In 2016, JLCS CPA graduated 59 students; this year, 64 students graduat- ed. “We’re growing each year; we’re getting more seniors,” said William Felton, principal of Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School College Prep Academy. “We’re also growing as a school because we started out as 1A, now we’re 2A, and next year we’ll be 3A as a conference.”