Jones steps into Superintendent role at Haxtun

July first marked the beginning of Aron Jones' career at Haxtun Schools. The new superintendent is in his first few weeks in his new role at Haxtun and already meeting staff, colleagues, students and community members in preparation for the year ahead. Jones officially signed a one-year contract following a lengthy superintendent search this spring.

"I am excited for students and teachers to be here," Jones said from his Haxtun High School office last week. "I am excited for kids to be here, learning in a classroom."

Jones joins the staff at Haxtun Schools with experience in the classroom as well as in education administration. Jones grew up in Pueblo where he graduated from Pueblo Central High School in 1996. In 2000, he received his Bachelor's Degree in sociology from the University of Southern Colorado (now CSU Pueblo) with a minor in elementary education along with his elementary teaching license.

"I just always knew I wanted to be a teacher," said Jones. "It's the first and only thing I ever wanted to be. I used to line my G.I. Joe guys up and give them worksheets."

While a senior in high school, Jones volunteered at an elementary school his mom worked at.

Jones took his first job as a third grade teacher in Pueblo. Later, he moved to Lamar and taught fifth grade. While he was at Lamar, he finished his Master's Degree in Education/Administration and Supervision from the University of Phoenix with a K-12 principal license.

After several years in the fifth grade classroom, Jones accepted a position as Principal at Lamar Middle School. He was at Lamar Middle School for a year before he sought out an administrative position at Parkview Elementary School in Lamar. He said at that time, the school was at the bottom of academic performance rankings and he was up for the challenge in turning that around.

"We made big changes in that first year," he said. In year one, Jones and his team at Parkview took the school from the lowest performance ranking to one step below the top. The following year, Parkview was at the highest performance ranking according to the Colorado Department of Education. Jones remained at Parkview for an additional eight years and while he was there, left his mark with Lamar Public Schools.

While at Parkview Elementary, Jones wrote a grant for a bullying prevention program and he got it. The grant totaled $350,000 over three years.

"It was a district wide effort," Jones said in implementing the program. "It helped significantly dropped our bullying incidents."

The Denver Post featured a story on the grant and the program's work in Lamar and in turn, the story drew attention from National networks like CBS and CNN.

CBS This Morning later featured the story as a segment to their School Matters series. A film crew visited Lamar and interviewed Jones as well as staff and students. To view the piece, search "Rural Colorado town uses pot sales taxes to fund anti-bullying program" on YouTube. The story was later also shown on CNN and other networks.

After the first three years, Jones applied for the grant again and got it. In total, the Lamar School District received a total of $700,000 in grant funds over a six year period for the bullying prevention program.

Jones went on to obtain a Master's Degree from the University of Phoenix in Business Administration and his Superintendent Endorsement from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

While in Lamar, Jones met his wife, Vanessa and she and son, Cullen, joined him in southern Colorado from the Front Range. Jones officially adopted Cullen after he and Vanessa were married.

The Jones family moved from Lamar to Fort Morgan where Jones took a position at Pioneer Elementary School. Later, he accepted a position as Superintendent with Woodlin Schools, where he just finished his second year before accepting a position at Haxtun. While at Woodlin, Jones lived in the Superintendent house near the school during the week and returned home to Fort Morgan on the weekends.

In addition to his time as a teacher and administrator, Jones has coached varsity girls' basketball, boys' and girls' varsity track, boys' varsity golf and youth league basketball from kindergarten to middle school.

As for the career move to Haxtun, Jones said he has always held a special place for rural education and working in rural school districts. After CBS featured his work with the anti-bullying grant, Jones said he was asked to interview at Denver Public Schools, a process that spans several days. He said he went and made it partially through day two before he knew a position in Denver wouldn't be a good fit.

"I've always wanted to be in rural education," he said. I've never been interested in teaching in bigger areas."

Jones' parents both grew up in Crowley County and he spent a lot of time there as a kid, more so than he did in Pueblo. "I was always there hunting and spending time with my grandparents," he added.

Jones and his wife, Vanessa, still live in Fort Morgan. Their son Cullen recently graduated from Brush High School. He plans to attend Aims Community College this fall to study cyber security. Vanessa is a special education teacher in the Brush School District.

In their time away from their respective schools, Jones and his wife like to camp and he enjoys golfing. The couple recently bought a Jeep and have been doing a lot of off-road exploring.

In his first year at Haxtun, Jones said he is looking forward to getting to know staff, students and the community and being open so those people can also get to know him.

"I don't want to come in and change a bunch of things. There are a lot of great things happening here," Jones said. He has already met with several staff members, attended a Haxtun Education Foundation meeting and met with the building design team on the BEST grant project.

Jones said sometimes it is easy for rural schools to fall into a rut but from what he sees, Haxtun has avoided that.

"Administration and teachers seem to know where there needs to be improvement and they have a clear vision to make that happen and that is a breath of fresh air for me. A lot of places I have been have been on fire when I got there, and I have been up for that challenge, but it's a good feeling to know everyone is exceeding at their jobs and still working to get better."