Board Honors Karen Jones, Executive Assistant
During the December Board meeting, Board Chair Dr. Mary Sue
Polleys presented Karen Jones, the Board's Executive Assistant, with a
special ABCD (Above and Beyond the Call of Duty) Award.
Having served as the Secretary to the Muscogee County School
Board (now the Executive Assistant to the Board and Superintendent) for over
12 years, Karen Jones exemplifies competence, courtesy, and diplomacy. Karen
is especially competent as a skilled communicator. She writes the minutes of
all school board meetings, correctly summarizing and clarifying complex
issues. She can remember or quickly find complete and accurate records of
all board proceedings. She writes letters, transmits messages, arranges
events, and communicates with legislators, distraught parents, news media
personnel, city and state officials, upset taxpayers, and system employees,
not to mention sometimes overwrought school board members---conveying
messages with accuracy and creating good will.
Karen is a master of diplomacy. As board secretary she has worked with four different
superintendents and 14 different school board members through the years. She
treats every person with dignity, respect, and fairness. She calms irate
parents with a whisper and a demeanor of patient understanding. She is
always pleasant even when circumstances are not. Her delightful sense of
humor keeps us all cooperating pleasantly, and her efficiency keeps board
business running smoothly. Even with tight deadlines and hectic schedules,
Karen never says she can’t get a job accomplished. She stays late or works
on holidays to get it all done. Karen knows the school system, knows
precisely the right person to contact for getting the mission accomplished,
and does so with poise and grace. The school system benefits from her
presence, and the Muscogee County School Board members feel blessed to have
her.
