Laffoon New Superintendent At Farmington

FARMINGTON — Jon Paul Laffoon, superintendent of Star City schools, will be the next superintendent of Farmington School District, starting July 1.

Farmington School Board last week voted to hire Laffoon, 44, to replace Superintendent Bryan Law, who has submitted his resignation, effective June 30, to become director of Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative.

“We’re looking forward to the next chapter,” board President Travis Warren said after the board unanimously voted on Laffoon at the Feb. 26 meeting. “It was a hard decision. We had to pick between great, great, great candidates. There was a lot of heartache, and a lot of thought went into this.”

Warren said he’s made a lot of calls across the state to educators about those who applied for the Farmington position.

“I think we’ve got a really good one here,” Warren said. “He’s excited. He’s ready to come up. Let’s be excited with him. It will be a good chapter for us.”

Warren said Laffoon’s salary will be $130,000. The employee contract has not been finalized and will be approved at a later board meeting.

Laffoon was one of four candidates interviewed for the superintendent’s position by the School Board on Feb. 24. The board also interviewed Farmington Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Pinkerton, Farmington High Principal Jon Purifoy and Benton Weston, superintendent of Mena Public Schools.

The four candidates also interviewed with a panel that included school teachers and administrators and people from the community.

Laffoon has served as superintendent of Star City School District since 2016, according to his resume. Previously, he served as principal of Pea Ridge High School from 2012-16, as head boys basketball coach and golf coach for Riverview Public Schools in Searcy from 2010-12, and as dean of students for grades 9-12, athletic director and head boys basketball coach for Star City Public Schools from 2006-10.

Laffoon also has worked for Greenwood Public Schools and for Episcopal Collegiate School in Little Rock, according to his resume.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in education in kinesiology from the UA, master’s degree in educational leadership from Arkansas State University, program of study superintendent from Texas A&M Texarkana and education specialist from Arkansas Tech University.

Laffoon’s resume lists his professional strengths as excellent oral and written communication skills, strong collaborative leadership style, positive attitude, capacity to work under pressure, innovative thinker and leader and ability to handle multiple tasks.

As Star City superintendent, Laffoon inherited a district in early intervention fiscal distress and created a $1.5 million surplus, according to his resume. He opened a school dental and health clinic through a partnership with Mainline Health, established a one-to-one environment at the high school and middle school, implemented the first faculty and staff raise since 2011 and led the creation of a new arena in 2019, according to his resume.

After the meeting, Warren said Laffoon is a young guy who’s highly energized and comes highly recommended.

“He has done positive things at the school district where he is now,” Warren added.

He said he also was impressed that Laffoon came into Farmington and looked around the community and talked to people in the community.

Warren compared him to the new football coach at the University of Arkansas, in that Laffoon really wanted to come to Farmington and presented ideas to the board on leading Farmington into the future.

Board member Jeff Oxford said Farmington had excellent candidates in the final four. It was more difficult, Oxford said, because two of the top candidates are already employed by the district.

“We deal with the superintendent once a month. The staff deals with the superintendent every day,” Oxford said. “We always are making decisions on what’s right for the kids. This time we were also doing what’s right for the employees and that makes it a tougher decision.”

Junior High Principal Joe McClung served on the school/community panel and on Thursday said he felt Laffoon stood out because of his experience at Star City in leading the district out of financial distress.

McClung said Laffoon had studied Farmington School District and looked at its challenges for the future, such as how to meet anticipated student growth.

“He stood out to me as having a vision for moving forward,” McClung said.

McClung said the panel came to a consensus in recommending Laffoon to the school board.

Laffoon on Thursday said he’s “super excited” about the position.

“It’s a great honor to be selected to serve,” Laffoon said. “I look forward to the progress ahead.”

Laffoon said he, his wife Meghan and son Miller plan to move to Farmington. He said he’s familiar with the “great tradition and community pride in Farmington” because his wife’s family is in Northwest Arkansas and from when he served at Pea Ridge High School.

“It’s a great opportunity for anyone to work in that district and with the people,” Laffoon said. “It’s known to be an outstanding school district throughout the state of Arkansas.”

Laffoon