Ken McLemore

HOPE – The Hope Public Schools Board of Education voted Tuesday morning in special session to extend an offer of employment as superintendent of schools to Dr. Jonathan Wayne Crossley, Assistant Superintendent of the Pine Bluff School District.

Dr. Crossley’s employment is contingent upon his formal acceptance of the offer, Board President Linda Haynes said.

Crossley is a native of South Carolina who holds a BA in Political Science from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. He received an MA in 2015 from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Ar., before obtaining Ed.S. and Ed.D. degrees from ATU in 2018.

Crossley is the Assistant Superintendent of the Pine Bluff School District, having begun teaching and coaching basketball in the Palestine Wheatley Schools in Palestine, Ar., from 2010-2015. He became a principal and a leadership fellow in the Little Rock School District in 2015 before becoming a consultant for the Office of Coordinated Support and Service of the Pine Bluff School District in 2018. He became assistant superintendent in Pine Bluff in 2019.

The board deliberated in an extended executive session Tuesday morning to discuss four days of interviews with finalist candidates held May 24-27 prior to its selection of Crossley. Pending his formal acceptance of the position, Crossley is to begin duties July 1.

Dr. Bobby Hart, who has served as superintendent of the HPS for the past nine years, has accepted the superintendent’s post in the Searcy Public Schools in Searcy, Ar., and is to begin duties there July 1.