For the third straight year, The Commercial presents a series honoring Jefferson County s high school and college graduates, sharing just a few of their stories. For this series, the Class of 2023, we will also look back with alumni and educators on four schools that are closing or being phased out at the end of this school year – Dollarway High, Jack Robey Junior High, Lighthouse Charter and Friendship Aspire Academy Southeast Campus. (The last will restart its high school with a slow-growth model.)
Junior high and high school students in the Pine Bluff School District will unite starting next school year, and parents across the district took the opportunity to ask the superintendent important questions in three parent meetings this week.
When Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed her education overhaul package known as the LEARNS Act, formerly Senate Bill 294, on March 8, superintendents and teachers seemed to have more questions than answers about the 145-page legislation.
Of all the possible campus closures that could have taken place in the Pine Bluff School District, Jack Robey Junior High was the last one Mattie Collins expected.