Jacksonville district trying to recover trophies taken from old school

Moving is stressful, a school board president says — and a superintendent adds that while some school trophies are more significant than others, all are worth saving.

Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District leaders are experiencing those lessons as they draw closer to the opening of the new Jacksonville High School on Main Street and the demolishing of the 50-year-old former high school on Linda Lane.

In the course of the ongoing transition, trophies from different areas of the former building were placed outside the old school a few days ago. They were spotted there, featured on social media and ultimately salvaged by passersby for distribution to individuals who might want them as mementos.

Superintendent Bryan Duffie said Monday evening that the chain of events that occurred was not intended, and that the district was in the process of recovering the items with help from Jacksonville Mayor Bob Johnson.

“A worker with a contracting company apparently thought he was doing a good deed without getting approval from the school district or Baldwin & Shell Construction Co., or anybody,” Duffie said. “If we had known he or she was going to do that, we would have said ‘No, we’ll go ahead [and] put them in storage.’”

Duffie and Jacksonville/ North Pulaski School Board President Daniel Gray said Monday that the awards and trophies that drew the social media attention aren’t championship trophies or banners, nor are they awards with people’s names on them. The big awards were previously pulled from the old high school by coaches and other knowledgeable staff for saving and for possible display in the new school.

The awards left in the school and eventually put outside were more likely to be third places in invitational competitions with no names on them, Duffie said.

A Jacksonville resident

had posted a picture of the stockpile of awards on Facebook, prompting dozens of comments — some asking to acquire awards from particular years or from particular sports. Others lamented what they called the “erasing” of the history of the high school that was once home to the Red Devils but now calls the Titan its mascot.

There was never an intent to “trash” the trophies, Gray said.

The Facebook poster, who could not be reached for comment by telephone Monday evening, initially told other people on Facebook that she would sort through some 50 awards that she and her mother picked up from the old high school and would try to match the old trophies to requests for them.

But then she posted that there was a change.

“Hey Everyone, I won’t be handing them out at all since I have been contacted by someone. Apparently me giving them away to people for [their] accomplishments wasn’t a good thing. So I’m sorry I thought I was doing something good but someone else didn’t think so,” she wrote.

Gray, the School Board president, said there is so much work being done to prepare for the new school year in the new building.

“It’s going to be a great facility,” Gray said. “We are trying to get everything ready. School is going to open on time. and everything is going to be fine, but there is a lot of stress about getting everything ready for the first day of school. Moving is high stress.”