An educator with 20 years of experience working with at-risk students has been hired to lead the planned Mark Twain School on North Main Street.

Corey Jameson, lead instructor of the Poplar Bluff Graduation Center, has accepted the position of principal of the alternative educational facility set to serve grades 7-12 beginning in the fall.

“From my perspective, Mr. Jameson took an indirect path to public education, but on his journey he was always focused on a population of students who needed something a little different than what was offered via conventional methods,” commented Dr. Scott Dill, R-I superintendent. “I genuinely believe Mr. Jameson sees it as a place of opportunities for students who have experienced trouble with the system, and he has the skillset to recognize what the students need from us to be successful, whether that’s extra support or really just us getting out of the way.”

Jameson earned his master's degree in secondary administration from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau in 2018. He started his undergraduate education at Three Rivers College and went on to receive his bachelor's in organizational management from Hannibal LaGrange College, and later his teaching certificate from Central Methodist University in Fayette.

Before joining the R-I school district in 2015, Jameson served at Sears Youth Center in various capacities including special education teacher, group leader, youth specialist and service coordinator beginning in 2002, and two years prior to that when counting his part-time work.

“My entire career has centered around helping students who have had barriers to success, and helping get them past those barriers,” Jameson said. “That’s what I’ve done for a long time, since I was about 18 years old.”

The nontraditional school will provide services on site through FCC Behavioral Health plus become the district’s headquarter for its social workers and attendance office. According to Jameson, a district as large as Poplar Bluff needs to have an alternative pathway for students who may have “slipped through the cracks” due to various life circumstances, yet have found the self-motivation to earn their diplomas.

“These students got themselves up, caught a bus and came to school,” Jameson continued. “That’s when an individual becomes most successful, when they’ve decided to do it for themselves. Because the bottom line is they see their value.”

Filling the top position was accelerated so that the principal can be part of the programming process as well as staffing, which will include reallocation of faculty as well as additional posts approved by the Board of Education in February. 

The Mark Twain building, to be retrofitted once the Early Childhood Center moves to the Kindergarten Center campus over the summer, will absorb the district’s credit recovery services and RISE Transition Center long-term suspensions, as well as become the home of the future Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) program. Education officials are also in discussions with higher education partners about college credit offerings.


“Everything is on the table at this point,” Dill explained. “We’re crafting programs to address the needs of learners for whom the traditional brick and mortar school is not meeting – on both sides of the spectrum.”

The grand opening of the new Early Childhood Center and Mark Twain School later this year will mark the completion of the second and final phase of the long-range plan financed in a single levy measure approved by voters in 2014.

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Cutline: Corey Jameson (back left) volunteers at the Bread Shed with students of the Poplar Bluff Graduation Center.