Craighead County, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – The Northeast Arkansas Career and Technical Center (NEACTC) walked away with a hefty reward for students’ efforts on a major fabrication project.
The school announced on Facebook Jan. 16 that the Craighead County Sheriff’s Office gave a $5,000 gift in appreciation for the welding program’s work on building new beds for the county detention center.
The project, which was done in 2025, tasked students with building heavy-duty sleeping quarters to help the jail combat overcrowding. While the sheriff’s office funded the raw materials throughout the process, this new $5,000 gift serves as a “thank you” to the students and faculty for providing a solution to a county problem.
| READ MORE: NEACTC building new bunks for Craighead County jail
Henry Laxton, welding and fabrication instructor at NEACTC, said the students were blown away by the gift, noting that they love doing anything that helps the public, as it teaches the students to do outside jobs and how to give back to the community.
“We were able to give back to the community by teaching the kids how to build something. They gave us [the] opportunity to do something different than we’re normally not doing in a classroom,” Laxton said. “The students had smiles from one ear to the other, and we were able to buy some stuff for the students, and they appreciate things like that.”
The sheriff’s office reached out to NEACTC to build additional bunks after it decided to stop housing inmates through the Act 309 program earlier in the year due to a response to overcrowding in the detention center. Sheriff Marty Boyd told JRN in 2025 that the jail housed around 400 inmates on average, when it was originally designed to hold 160 inmates. As of 2026, it houses a maximum of 346 inmates.
Laxton said the $5,000 went into a parent-teacher program used to help other programs at NEACTC that need help, including giving scholarships to students who are going through a rough time.
“Recently, we purchased some furniture for a student that was moving out on her own. We have good students like that. We try to help them out [the] best we can, so they use that money for students like that,” Laxton said.
With the jail bunks delivered and the project closed out, the welding students have already pivoted to new fabrication challenges unrelated to the sheriff’s office. Laxton said the students are currently building conexes and other items for the Jonesboro High School baseball team.
Garrett Barnes, assistant director of NEACTC, told JRN in 2025 that he hopes the success of the bunk project will lead to more opportunities for students to assist local government and nonprofits.
“Any way that our students can help the jail, not just on that regard, but in any other capacity, whether it be with the county or with the city or a nonprofit organization, I would love the opportunity to help them and give our students these types of experiences at our school,” Barnes said.
