HOPE – Yerger Middle School Principal Josclyn Wiley admits that she inherited a love of education; her grandfather, Theodore Jones, is considered something of a legend in the Conway Public Schools.
“My grandfather was principal of a school when they were segregated in Conway, and he went on to teach career orientation,” Wiley said. “Everything that I do, I think if he was here to see it, he would be proud of me.”
Theodore Jones Elementary School, the newest elementary campus in Conway, was dedicated in honor of Wiley’s grandfather in 1994. Jones originally served as principal at Pine Street High School after teaching agriculture there for 16 years, Wiley said. The school building is now a community center; so, Wiley understands the context of Yerger’s history in public education, noting that the gymnasium at Yerger is strikingly similar to the one at her grandfather’s school.
“I want to make sure our students know the history of the building and the significance of all that it means,” Wiley noted. She said she wants her students to “embrace the culture in their community” and to build a strong relationship between Yerger and the community.
“One team; one goal” is her motto.
“What I would most want for my children is what I’d want for my students here,” Wiley said. “I set the standards high and then make sure we get there.”
Her philosophy of education is to build relationships, believe in her students, and put in the hours to make it happen.
“I believe in that,” Wiley said.
Wiley comes to Hope from serving as the assistant principal for special populations at Texas High School in the Texarkana Public Schools. She holds a master’s degree in education from Texas A&M University-Texarkana in 2001, and she received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 1997.
She holds that moment as a milestone in her life because of her grandfather, Wiley said.
“He did get to come to my college graduation,” she said. “Everything that I do, I think of what he would do.”
Wiley met her husband, Keith, while at UCA, where he played football, and the couple moved to Texarkana after marrying, when he began his career with the Arkansas Farm Bureau. Wiley admits that with two daughters, ages seven and nine, she has become something of a “soccer mom.”
She began as principal at Yerger on July 1, and she wants to begin building excitement for the new year in her faculty that will inspire a passion for learning in the some-270 students on the Yerger campus in the fall.
Wiley holds Texas principal certification and elementary self-contained and elementary social studies certification; and, she has been an administrator in the Texarkana district since 2001, previously teaching there from 1998-2001, after beginning her career in the Pulaski County Special School District in Little Rock in 1998.
She has worked extensively in the area of special education and compliance, developing monitoring procedures for those programs, while overseeing professional development for teachers including a poverty training module for new teachers in Texarkana. Wiley has extensive experience in Therapeutic Intervention Learning Center services and the management of inclusion program implementation.
She is a member of the UCA Foundation Board; graduate of Leadership Texarkana 2008; serves on the Texarkana, Arkansas, Civil Service Commission, and is a member of the Texarkana Resources Board. Active in civic life, Wiley is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and active in Bowie and Cass counties schools with Special Olympics, as well as serving as a Deaconess, Christian education co-chair and vacation Bible school teacher at Lonoke Baptist Church.