2015 Stories of the Year: Bibb school board chooses new superintendent
No. 6 Story of the Year
January 1, 2016
2015 Stories of the Year: Bibb school board chooses new superintendent
After searches over two years, the Bibb County school board looked 53 miles to the north and offered the school superintendent’s job to Curtis L. Jones Jr. He was leading the Griffin-Spalding County school system, one that’s less than half the size of Bibb.
Board members interviewed Jones in closed session Feb. 5, and they offered him the job later that month.
Before his hire, Bibb County had a series of interim superintendents following the school board buying out Romain Dallemand’s contract after just two years on the job.
Backers called Jones down to earth and pointed in particular to his strength in building relationships and the leadership skills he learned in the Army.
The challenges Jones inherited are not uncommon among Georgia’s larger cities: widespread poverty, discipline issues and test scores and graduation rates that need improving.
And the Dallemand era, perhaps like the Ghost of Christmas Past, still haunts the system. He filed a $10 million claim against the school system with the American Arbitration Association last year, contending violations of his severance agreement with the district. The school board countersued for $7.5 million.
Jones has had some early successes. In November, Bibb County voters overwhelmingly approved a new round of sales tax collections for school improvements. That same month, the state reported that Bibb County’s high school graduation rates had improved by more than 12 percentage points from 2014.
This story was originally published January 1, 2016 at 12:00 AM.