Staff Writer
KILGORE — Jody Clements will serve as Kilgore Independent School District’s new superintendent beginning in May.
The district’s board of trustees named Clements as the lone finalist at a special meeting on Tuesday.
The board’s decision to hire Clements, currently KISD’s director of human resources, came unanimously, after a 40-minute executive session.
Clements beat out more than 25 applicants for the job. The search for a new superintendent has been ongoing since current Superintendent Jerry Roberts announced in 2006, his plans to retire. Roberts originally planned to take his leave of office at the end of the 2006-07 school year, but board members urged him to stay on an extra year when several administrative positions became vacant within the district. Roberts will retire in May 2008.
Clements lives in Kilgore, where he was born and raised. He graduated from Kilgore High School in 1983, before moving to Arkansas to earn a bachelor’s in accounting at the University of Arkansas-Monticello. He earned an MBA from Louisiana Tech University in 1988, received his teaching certificate from Stephen F. Austin State University in 2001, and is working on an Educational Doctorate from Walden University with a focus on administrative teaching and learning.
“It’s been really exciting,” Clements said, once he learned he was the lone finalist. “This is something I set as a goal for myself.”
Clements has worked for KISD for almost 14 years. He started in 1994 as a high school math teacher and coach. In 1998, he became principal of KISD’s alternative school, and three years later, he moved to the middle school principal position.
“I grew up with these people, and they know they can trust me as their leader,” he said.
Clements is married to Courtney Clements, a counselor within the school district. He has five children and two grandchildren.
