Rise of the Titans
JACKSONVILLE NORTH PULASKI SCHOOL DISTRICT LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
New facilities and new programs are on the horizon for the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District.
The district is nearing completion of the new Jacksonville High School, which should be ready for students at the end of the summer. The school will have better lighting, more space for activities, and modern technology that will give teachers more tools to help educate the district’s students.
“We will be able to have classes there in August,” said Bryan Duffie, district superintendent. “There will still be a few areas [being] worked on because of the complexity of some of the facilities.”
Duffie said about 1,000 students will be housed at the $75 million high school, and the school’s capacity is around 1,400. The high school has a lot of updated technology and facilities for the district’s specialty programs and career-tech college programs.
Last year, the district began a new cybersecurity program that is designed to get students ready for careers in and certifications for cybersecurity analyst jobs or cyber-network security positions.
“That’s a growing field, and there just aren’t enough people with those credentials to fill those jobs,” Duffie said.
The district hired instructors for the program from the private sector who have worked with training the military and have the credentials and certifications the district wants its cybersecurity students to have.
The cybersecurity program was also given a boost from the Little Rock Air Force Base, which helped secure a $330,000 grant for the program. The grant came from the Governor’s Military Affairs Committee and
the Arkansas Economic Development Committee. The grant started as a project for the LRAFB Community Council, and the council worked with area Air National Guard members and LRAFB cybersecurity personnel to put together the grant application to develop a curriculum for the high school cybersecurity program.
“It’s a progressive curriculum. They can get in it one year and stay in it two or three more years, and at the point they get out of high school, they will have specific certifications that entitle them to apply for some really good high-paying jobs,” said Annabelle Davis, Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council executive secretary.
The grant was a big part of the LRAFB Community Council being awarded the 2018 Abilene Trophy, which recognizes the community that best supports an Air Mobility Command each year. Students who complete the cybersecurity program can also further their education at schools such as Arkansas State University-Beebe, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
The school district also completed its first year of operation at Bobby G. Lester Elementary School. The new school combined students and teachers from two schools, Tolleson Elementary and Arnold Drive Elementary. Duffie said the new school has about 500 students and has updated technology in the classrooms, more space and a tornado shelter.
“The transition went fairly well,” he said. “We combined the staffs, and I have no complaints about how things went there this year.”
The district also started a new culinary arts program. The program is a continuation of one in the family and consumer sciences program that operated a student-run restaurant called Simply Delicious. Duffie said the restaurant was in a small area near the cafeteria of the old North Pulaski High School.
The new high school will have a better culinary arts facility with more capacity, and the district has signed an agreement with the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College Culinary Institute. Pulaski Tech will provide two instructors to teach basic courses and advanced courses, which will provide concurrent credit and certifications that students may need in the restaurant industry. Duffie said the program can help students get started on degrees such as business management so they can eventually open their own restaurants.