SPRINGDALE -- The Northwest Arkansas Council has tapped a Springdale School District administrator to fill a position created to strengthen ties between educational institutions and the business community.
Joe Rollins began last week as the council's director of workforce development. Rollins was the first principal of Springdale's School of Innovation, a job he held for four years before being promoted to the district's director of support services this summer.
The job will focus on building relationships between Northwest Arkansas' schools and employers to better prepare students for careers and meet the needs of the workforce. The School of Innovation is a great model of how schools and employers can work together, said Mike Harvey, the council's chief operating officer.
"It is a place where kids can get proper career guidance, exposure to careers, lots of industry partnerships and programs that are relevant in the workplace," Harvey said. "It has everything you want."
Rollins' experience helping to develop and oversee that model made him the first person Harvey thought of when it came time to fill the position, Harvey said.
One of Rollins' goals is to develop a database of high school graduates who want to be contacted about job opportunities in the region based on the skills and credentials they've accumulated through career programs.
His position is paid for with a four-year grant from the Walton Family Foundation. Harvey said the council will look to sustain the position beyond the term of the grant.
Rollins said his experience has shown him business and industry needs change rapidly, and it's crucial to maintain communication with employers about those needs.
"This is an ongoing relationship where instructors, counselors and employers have ongoing dialogue," Rollins said. "They open their books to the curriculum and go back and review standard by standard, does this fit what we still need or do we need to tweak it, do we need to improve it, do we need to modify how we deliver it so it's truly relevant to what students will see after they graduate."
Rollins joined the Springdale district in 2004 as a secondary business education teacher at George Junior High School. He became an assistant principal at George in 2008 and then assistant principal at Springdale High School in 2010.
The district named Rollins the first principal of the School of Innovation when it opened in 2014. He's served as the district's director of career and technical education for several years. He recently earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Arkansas.
He made $126,463 last school year as principal and was scheduled to earn $128,138 this school year as director of support services, a position that oversees several departments such as food service and transportation.
Jim Rollins, the superintendent of Springdale schools and Joe Rollins' father, said he's proud of the contributions his son has made to the district.
"Our School of Innovation obviously has experienced his leadership," Jim Rollins said. "He helped with the vision and the construction. He made significant connections between our students and our families as they considered a new school, a new delivery system. I think his impact on the district will be felt for many, many years."
As for finding a replacement for him in the support services position, Jim Rollins said the district will take its time and see what candidates emerge.
"We've got a great team," he said. "When gaps occur, we try to help each other cover those. At the appropriate time, when we identify just the right person, we'll move forward. But we won't rush."
NW News on 10/16/2018