Private school closing at end of semester

Wilson, Arkansas – After the spring semester, Wilson’s Delta School will close its doors after ten years.

“As of this week, our campus and facilities will be gifted to the Arkansas Northeastern College Foundation,” school officials said in a statement shared on social media. “This will be our last school year before they take possession this summer.”

The Wilson Works Foundation announced in a statement to K8 news that it has reached a principal agreement to provide the $27.5 million school property to the ANC Foundation, calling it one of the “largest-ever gifts to a community college in the nation.”

As stated in the news release, the donation would “create a new academic environment that will prepare the region’s students for success in college, career, and life,” according to businessman Gaylon Lawrence, Jr., who founded the school in 2014.

“Our job as community leaders is to aggregate, acquire, and align the resources to help students in rural communities like Wilson and those throughout Northeast Arkansas develop the capacity to succeed along their academic and vocational journey,” Lawrence said. “This is an exciting example of those collective efforts and presents a sustainable path forward that combines excellent academics with career exploration and training in a way that does not currently exist for our students.”

Dr. Christopher Heigle, President of the ANC, stated that the institution will investigate the possibility of offering career and college training on the property.

“We’re grateful for this tremendous gift and appreciative of the philanthropic and academic seeds that Mr. Lawrence and the leaders at the Wilson Works Foundation have planted over the last decade,” Heigle said. “We see this as an opportunity to consider a postsecondary-focused mission that could open the doors to a greater number of college and career-focused students.”

In the upcoming weeks, more details on the school’s transfer for current students as well as enrollment requirements and opportunities for potential students should be made public.

The Lawrence Group, the Wilson Education Foundation, local cotton farmers, and businessman Gaylon Lawrence, Jr. launched The Delta School in 2014, according to its website.

The school relocated to its 23-acre site in 2015. The board of trustees decided unanimously to add a high school two years later, and it opened its doors in 2018.

“The Delta School is grateful for the unending encouragement,” school officials said. “We will always be more than a campus. We are a communal identity that will continue to share our enthusiasm for transforming education by centering student agency and voice.”