Debbie Jones, the Arkansas Department of Education's assistant commissioner for learning services, is resigning the state post she has held for 19 months to become deputy superintendent of the Bentonville School District, effective Feb. 1.
The Bentonville School Board approved Jones' hiring at its Tuesday night meeting and she announced her resignation from the state agency Wednesday morning at a meeting of the Charter Authorizing Panel of which she and other top-level department employees are members.
Jones has worked for the state Education Department since July 1, 2014. She previously worked in the Bryant School District as high school principal and, most recently, as an assistant superintendent specializing in curriculum and instructional design and implementation. She is a former director of secondary education and a former principal at the Robinson and Jacksonville middle schools in the Pulaski County Special School District.
As assistant commissioner, Jones shepherded through changes in the state's student-testing program. She oversaw the final stages of the state's move to the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test last spring and then the transition from those PARCC tests to the ACT Aspire exams that will be given later this spring.
The learning services division at the Education Department has also been responsible for revising the state's education standards in mathematics and in English/language arts -- a process that has involved large numbers of teachers, college educators and others from across the state. The draft standards will go to the state Board of Education later this year for approval.
Jones told her agency colleagues Wednesday that she doesn't know "whether the state really recognizes the knowledge that we have at this level, but I'm amazed and I'm better for having been here."
Having grown up in Charleston, Jones said the move will put her and her husband closer to their family, including children attending the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
"I'm excited about the opportunity to get to work in a district that truly exemplifies excellence," she said about Bentonville.
Jones, who has a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has a state salary of $114,835.55 a year.
She replaced Megan Witonski in July 2014 at the state job. Witonski had held the assistant commissioner position for about a year when she accepted an offer to be an assistant superintendent in the Springdale School District.
Jones' husband, Dale Jones, a teacher and coach in the Mayflower School District, is also taking a job in the Bentonville School District.
Metro on 01/21/2016