Principal of low performing Lexington school transferred, action labeled a ‘demotion.’

The principal of William Wells Brown Elementary, the only school in Fayette County in 2019 to receive the federal label CSI for very low performance, has been transferred in what is described in district records as “a demotion.”

Jay Jones Jr., who is being transferred to the position of associate principal at Lexington’s Winburn Middle School as of July 1, this week referred questions to district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall.

“We cannot comment on personnel matters,” Deffendall said.

In a May 5 letter to Jones that the Herald-Leader obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act, Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk said “the district is not able to continue your position as a Principal for the 2020-2021 school year” and notified him of his transfer to Winburn. The letter said that Jones could contest the demotion and request a hearing before the Fayette County Public Schools board. No other explanation about the demotion was contained in documents provided to the Herald-Leader.

William Wells Brown has had a history of low performance. Last fall, it received one star on a a five star scale for 2018-19 in Kentucky’s school accountability system. It was ranked in the bottom five percent of elementary schools in the state. According to a Herald-Leader analysis, William Wells Brown was 705 out of 725 elementary schools in Kentucky with an overall score of 41.3. Jefferson County schools took over the entire bottom 10 in 2019 scores.

William Wells Brown was the only school out of seven in the Fayette district in 2019 that did not exit out of the classification of CSI --schools needing comprehensive support and improvement -- that it had received the year before. Jones has been the principal at William Wells Brown since at least 2015, according to Herald-Leader archives.

Last fall, William Wells Brown underwent a transformation and was renamed a ‘Promise Academy’ with intensive intervention and an enriched curriculum to increase student achievement.

Jones’ demotion was included in documents attached to the May Fayette school board meetings agendas. On May 13, district officials advertised on the website topschooljobs.org that it wanted to hire “a turnaround principal” at the school who would dramatically improve student performance.

“We have several principal vacancies at this time, and our goal is to have all positions filled prior to July 1,” Deffendall told the Herald-Leader this week.