The Jones County Board of Education had a work session last week consisting of three hours of annual training to fulfill requirements for board members, but it began with an announcement that impacted the entire school system.
Chairman Ginger Bailey called the Nov. 6 meeting to order and following the opening prayer and pledge made the announcement of the sole finalist for the position of school superintendent.
The name of the finalist is Jessica Graves, and she is currently the director of student achievement for the Colquitt County School District. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia with a major in Language and Literary Education.
Graves received her B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Georgia College and State University. In her letter of introduction, she stated she completed an internship placement at Mattie Wells Elementary and felt the position would be “a full circle moment to return and lead in a place where I got my start.”
The finalist is married and has a daughter, 10, and son, 9.
Clinton Burston was appointed interim superintendent in April and was officially sworn to the position in June after the departure of the former superintendent Charles Lundy.
Bailey called for a motion to approve Graves as the sole finalist, and that motion was made by Board Member Mike Gordon. The vote to approve was unanimous.
Board member Brady Skinner stated he wanted to take the opportunity to say Burston has done a tremendous job in the position of interim.
“I want thank him for the amount of work he has put in for the school system,” Skinner said.
That sentiment was then echoed by Board Member Dr. Nancy Nash, Bailey, Gordon and board member Kim Washburn.
Since taking on the role of superintendent, Burston has continued in his job other full-time job as JCSS executive director of accounting and school improvement.
Bailey said the vote to appoint Graves as the Superintendent of Jones County Schools could not take place for 14 days.
In answer to a subsequent text about the process of selecting the new superintendent, the chairman said 24 applications had been received by the Georgia School Board Association that conducted the search for Jones County, and the board interviewed six of the applicants.
The Nov. 6 whole board training was conducted by Donna Hinton with GSBA.
