One on one with new Dallas Co. Schools Superintendent

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

The superintendent of Dallas County Schools has been on job now for about two months.

Dr. Corey Jones provides an update on how things are going around the school district.

Jones has spent his first eight weeks on the job — assessing the school district — and getting acclimated to the community.

“We’re focusing on introducing ourself to the community — and focusing what the community wants,” he said.

Jones was able to hit the ground running — when he took over as superintendent of Dallas County Schools. He spent the last six years as superintendent of Greene County Schools.

Now he’s leading the Dallas County School District through a state invention.

“We’re looking forward to not only improving Dallas County during the intervention, but actually making Dallas County a premier district in the whole entire southeast,” said  And we’re starting by having district walk throughs. And we’ll have our executive team at district going in, into our school building doing walk throughs, so we can inspect what we expect.

Jones says tackling chronic absenteeism in the school district — will be the first major step — in building a better school district.

“We need our parents to partner with us to make sure that children are attending school daily,” said Jones.

“It’s very critical that we have our students here every day. Ready, and eager to learn. Our goal is to make sure that once they’re here, that we prepare them for their future.”

Jones says along with addressing areas that need improvement — it’s also important to highlight areas of excellence in the district.

“Our college and career readiness rate and our graduation rate that are hovering close to 90 percent, we’ve set a goal for 95 percent for this year,” said Jones.

“So, while we’re doing a great job, we’re going to do a better job. And we’re going to analyze and focus on that throughout the year.”

Jones took over as superintendent on October 1st. He brings 32 years of experience in education to the job.