Jennifer Barbaree went from helping high school students with their schedules to painting hands with kindergartners on the first day of class in the Pine Bluff School District.
"It's been a busy day but awesome," the superintendent said toward the end of the school day Wednesday.
The day also marked the beginning of a new era in the district, one that Barbaree announced nearly six months earlier when she revealed students in grades 7-9 would be merged into Pine Bluff Junior High School and grades 10-12 would be united at Pine Bluff High School.
What used to be Robert F. Morehead Middle School is now the seventh- and eighth-grade building across Fluker Avenue from the Pine Bluff Junior High Academy for ninth grade, previously Dollarway High School. The signage for both Morehead and Dollarway is not yet replaced.
Barbaree said the district could no longer operate two junior high and two high schools -- Jack Robey Junior High and Dollarway no longer exist -- and be fiscally solvent, hence the merger.
The vibe among the united students at Pine Bluff High, Barbaree said, was inviting. An assembly was held for each grade level at the school.
"Our students, I would say, may have been a little bit sleepy this morning because they weren't used to having to get up so early this morning," she said. "Our students were all sitting together. They were all collaborating together, and I believe it was a very positive and inviting environment this morning."
Junior high Principal Arnold Robertson said his campus was off to a smooth start. The Morehead and Dollarway campuses were home to Cardinals, but all PBSD secondary students are now Zebras, adopting the longtime Pine Bluff High identity.
"You cannot tell the difference, and I love that," said Robertson, a veteran of the former Dollarway and Pine Bluff districts. "You can't tell a Dollarway kid from a Pine Bluff kid. It's just been kids, period. They've come back with that frame of mind that we're here and we're ready to work. We're ready to enjoy the school year. Very enthusiastic; no kid mad at another kid or that kind of thing. It's been a real smooth transition."
The greatest challenge to running two campuses in one, Robertson said, is just walking across the street.
"As I said to my team, what goes on, on one side of the street needs to happen on the other side of the street," he explained. "Whatever form students are filling on that side of the street, it needs to be that way on this side of the street. Just trying to make sure everything is uniform is the greatest challenge."
Business teacher TyKesha Cross is enduring the change from her alma mater Dollarway to Pine Bluff Junior High Academy. She began her fifth year of teaching with a television crew following her throughout the day for an interview to air at a date and on a program yet to be announced.
Cross suspects she's part of a moment in PBSD history with the secondary school merger from two attendance zones to one.
"From my experience as a Cardinal, what I know is that we fly above," she said. "In my biases, I had to fly above [and realize] that the kids I loved last year are the kids I will love this year because love is never-ending. It doesn't stop at being a Cardinal. There are some Zebras who need some love, too. What greater person that can be used for the writing of this history story than TyKesha Gray Cross?
"With that, I can fly. I can weather the storm."
But the day apparently was anything from stormy, inside and outside of the campus.
"It was a little bit of a glitch there for the students trying to get into the building because we had quite a few students try to get into the building going through metal detectors," Barbaree said about the junior high.
Once inside, the students at one point or another spun a wheel to determine which team they would represent. On these teams, Robertson explained, students encourage each other to make positive behavioral choices.
Throughout the district, Barbaree said, not as many students attended the first day as the expected enrollment for the district, which served 3,053 students last school year.
"We're not up to what we expect for enrollment, but this is the first day back, so I think we're going to have more students come [today]," Barbaree said. "I would expect a little busier traffic and make sure students are standing at the bus stop. ... I expect Monday to have everybody back."
Barbaree asked students concerned about having the wrong schedules or bus routes to talk with their principals and counselors.
TyKesha Cross, a business teacher at the Pine Bluff Junior High Academy, graduated from and previously taught at Dollarway High. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)