Two of South Pike County School District’s key positions for the 2018-2019 school year were filled during a special board meeting held Thursday, April 26.
By votes of 6-0, former Rattler Davey Jones was picked for the high school principal job and current elementary literacy teacher Cindy Lee was approved for the elementary principal position.
Jones will replace Kathaleen Cole, who is completing her 11th year with the South Pike County district. Lee will replace Pam Bonner, who is about to end her 29th year at Murfreesboro.
Jones, who is a 1992 Murfreesboro High School graduate, worked for his alma mater from 2005 to 2011. He was a seventh grade teacher, the defensive coordinator for the Rattler football team and head boys basketball coach. He later added head baseball coach to his duties. Jones earned a bachelor of science in education at Ouachita Baptist University in 1997 and his master’s degree in educational leadership in 2006 from Harding University.
Jones’ first job in the education field was with the Nashville School District from 1997 to 2001 when he served as teacher and coached. He has also worked as high school principal at Mineral Springs (2011-2013) and is currently middle school principal at Centerpoint.
He is the son of Tom and Mary Anne Jones of Murfreesboro and is married to Melissa Jones, who currently works at MHS as a math teacher and curriculum coordinator. The couple has three children – Grady, 15; Josey, 9; and Rhett, 2.
Other applicants for the MHS principal job included:
Melissa Cornish, Holly Couch, Samantha Lee and Alvarene Welch.
Lee, a 1982 graduate of Union High School in southern Arkansas, received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a minor in special education from Southern Arkansas University in 1986. After a three-year stint in special education at Wickes High School, Lee moved to Delight, her husband Billy Lee’s hometown, where she taught 17 years. She received her master’s degree as a reading specialist from Henderson State University and became licensed as a K-12 curriculum specialist and a K-8 building level administrator through Arkansas State University.
She worked for the Blevins School District for 10 years – one as a special education teacher and nine as curriculum director. Last year, Lee worked at the Clinton Primary School in Hope teaching fourth grade literacy.
Lee currently teaches third grade literacy for the South Pike district.
The Lee family includes son Taylor, who teaches at Hope High School, and daughter Summer, who will soon be a junior at Henderson State University.
Other applicants for the elementary principal position included:
Jason Burns, Christon Belt, Melissa Cornish, Holly Couch, Megan Hyman, Samantha Lee, Traci Revels, Alvarene Welch and Karlie Worley.
