By Justin McGill
Tribune-Courier Managing Editor
jmcgill@tribunecourier.com

DRAFFENVILLE – Trent Lovett’s promotion to superintendent of Marshall County Schools left an opening in the principal’s office at Marshall County High School. Last week, that opening was filled by Ricky Jones, an assistant principal at MCHS.

Jones, a 1983 graduate of MCHS, has been at the school for the last 19 years, serving as a mathematics instructor, alternative classroom director, Freshman Focus program coordinator and, most recently, assistant principal.

Jones follows in the footsteps of his father, Gerald, who was principal of North Marshall High School, Calvert City Elementary School and Benton Middle School during his career as an education administrator.

“Being a second-generation administrator, I’m elated at the chance to be put in this position,” Jones said. “I won’t say I worked for it my whole life, but it’s something that I’ve thought about a lot and didn’t know if the opportunity would present itself. I can’t wait to work with the faculty and, most importantly, with the kids. We’ve got some really good kids and a really supportive community to work with.”

Jones said many more of his family members are involved in education, as well, including his wife, Jo Beth. The couple has two children, Karly and Jesse.

“My whole family is in education,” Jones said. “It’s something we put a great deal of value in. We tremendously value the administrations of the past and what they’ve done to get the school system to where it is now.”

With Jones’ promotion and the retirement of Russell Palmer, there are two assistant principal openings at the school. Debbie Benton is also retiring, leaving an opening for a guidance counselor, and Steve Woodward left the athletic director’s office earlier this year. Tom Brown is filling that position in the interim, but he said he will not be a candidate for the job long-term.

Lovett said he will make the hires before his and Jones’ transitions take effect on July 1, adding that Jones will be instrumental in choosing the right people for those positions.

“The dominoes can start falling,” Lovett said. “I didn’t want to hire a bunch of people that the new principal might not have wanted. Now that Ricky has been named, we can get our heads together.”

Jones said one of his initial goals as principal will be to make more time for administrators to be in classroooms with students.

“We deal with a lot of things that take us away from the kids, but we want the administrators to be with the kids more,” Jones said. “We are quite a bit now, but we want to increase it. That’s what this is all about. Mr. Lovett’s been really good at that, and we want to continue and increase it.”