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By: Joe Shouse<\/b><\/p>\nBy: Joe Shouse<\/b><\/p>\n
HAVILAND – In a special meeting of the Wayne Trace School District the board unanimously approved Paul Jones as the new Payne Elementary principal. Jones received a three-year contract and will replace former principal Jody Dunham who recently retired.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Jones served as the high school principal at Edgerton this past school year. Prior to his one-year stint at Edgerton, Jones served as the elementary principal for five years at North Central in Pioneer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have lived in Edgerton all my life and when the high school principal position came available at Edgerton I thought it would be a good move. It was a good experience but I realized that I missed the elementary age students and when the Payne opportunity opened up I felt it would be a good way to get back to my true passion,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n
Jones attended Defiance College where he received his bachelor\u2019s in Education with a concentration in Elementary Education and History in 2000. Upon graduation he received certification in Elementary Education (grade 1-8). In 2005 Jones received his Masters in Educational Leadership and Administration at Bowling Green State University.<\/p>\n
Jones started his teaching career at North Central where he was in the classroom at the elementary level from 2001-2012.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy passion is with the elementary age group. When I was away from them last year I really missed them. Being from Edgerton and the tie between Edgerton and Wayne Trace in the Green meadows Conference, I knew about Wayne Trace. I have a sincere admiration for the Wayne Trace district. I am comfortable in a rural setting and getting back to the elementary age kids is exciting. I believe Wayne Trace and Payne Elementary is a good fit for me,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n Jones is married and he and his wife Melinda, an early intervention specialist at Edgerton, have three sons and a daughter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An avid Ohio State and Bowling Green fan, Jones realizes that he may be getting a late start to his new position but is excited about working with the Payne staff.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI really don\u2019t think the later-than-usual start and making the transition will be that difficult. I am excited about the new school year and working with the elementary age students,\u201d Jones concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Joe Shouse HAVILAND – In a special meeting of the Wayne Trace School District the board unanimously approved Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[69,165,1975,318,1173],"class_list":["post-22942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-school","tag-elementary","tag-jones","tag-paul","tag-payne","tag-principal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Payne-Elem-Principal.jpeg?fit=316%2C325&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-5Y2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 03:32:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}