Former Thomas Jefferson High School (TJ) Principal Benjamin Jones carried the high school through several transitions over the past five years, but this school year, he traded in his Patriot pride for blue and gold with his new role as executive director of school leadership for the Conrad High School feeder pattern.
Can you tell us a little bit about your new position?
I’m super excited to take on the role. Effectively, the role is about supporting principals as they lead their campuses, really making sure that I serve as a coach, mentor and a listening ear to help principals as they navigate the landscape of school improvement and student achievement. That’s the work, and I love doing it already.
Looking back at your time at Thomas Jefferson, is there a moment or achievement that you’re most proud of?
What I am proud of is the trajectory that we’ve set TJ on, right? There’s been moments that we can define. Moving back into the new building, relaunching the space there on the Walnut Hill campus was a great moment. The campus achieving its B rating that first year and maintaining that has been great, but I really think about the entire trajectory of the campus and the community that’s come with it, and it’s measured in some ways in our college acceptance rates, our number of scholarship dollars that our graduates have earned, our number of students choosing to go to college, and I think that’s really exciting.
I always like to say my job was just to be the most adamant believer in the success that was possible at TJ, where it was a team effort to get the work done, and it really relied on parents and students and teachers and the rest of the faculty and staff to make it happen. My job was really to be the chief believer in what was possible at TJ. I was grateful to have a staff and a community that were willing to go on that journey with me, and I know they’re going to continue it because they all believe in it.
As you move out of the Preston Hollow area, do you have any last thoughts for its residents?
When I set out years ago, we were situated across town in West Dallas, still recovering from the impact of the tornado, still recovering from the impact of COVID, and moving into the building was still a year and a half away. And one of the things I said then to the community, to the parents, the faculty, the staff, to everyone was, my goal is not for that building to be the catalyst that changes TJ, but that when TJ moves back into that building, we are moving into a building that’s worthy of who we already are. And so, what I would say to the community is: Yes, the building is beautiful. Yes, it is new. We have great facilities, and all of those things are still true. And we’re super proud of the building and the facilities.
But truly, what makes TJ great is not the big, beautiful building. It is the community that’s inside that building. It is the teachers. It is the work. And TJ has become a place that our community, our neighborhood, can believe in, can support, and I really do think that we’re a campus now that the entire community and neighborhood should be proud of, and should consider as equal to some of the other names that people typically associate with the area and the region because, quite frankly, when it comes to accountability and the results, we’re either in line right there with them or above them. I would challenge the community to think about TJ differently than maybe they did 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, and recognize TJ for what it is today and what it will continue to grow to be.
Philip Meaker has been the principal of Walnut Hill Leadership Academy for four years, leading the school through a transitional period, adding more grade levels and moving into a new building post-2019 tornado. This year, he is taking over Jones’s position as principal of Thomas Jefferson.
What are you most proud of in your time at Walnut Hill?
When I took over the school, it was a C campus … and when I left, it was three As and a B, so I’m very proud of where we got academically. As far as school-wise, obviously we moved into a new building; we went from 368 students to, I believe, 571 the last day I was there, so over 200 students of growth, C to an A for academic growth, and then just bringing the community back in. We had a lot more of the people who actually live in our area start coming back to the school, which is exciting to not just have a lot of transfers, but have a lot of kids who lived in our area start committing to public education and seeing the fruits of the labor and the hard work and the great things that are going on.
As you transition into the new role, what is one of your goals for Thomas Jefferson?
One of my biggest passions is extracurriculars, and so I want to see every candidate involved in a program. I don’t care if it’s knitting, if it’s football, band, theater, chess. It doesn’t matter to me. I want to see kids involved in something on campus because that helps the whole student grow. Because if they have some accountability, then they have to show up in order to participate. They have to pass in order to participate. And then when something happens and discipline is needed, the clubs, the organizations that they’re part of, can really hold the students more accountable because that’s something that they are passionate about, and so they don’t want to lose that. Helping kids be engaged helps the school kind of get a little smaller because it helps a teacher get engaged with the kids, a smaller group of kids, and then focus on that group on a daily basis. They can even see when there’s some mental health issues or things going on at home. Those who see them every day can kind of engage them a little bit more and kind of check on them, rather than the teacher who has 150, 200 students a week, and it’s hard to see every single kid individually and kind of where they’re at. So, the more involvement they have in extracurriculars, the more it grows the student.
Since Walnut Hill feeds into TJ, have any of your former students been surprised to see you again?
Absolutely, that’s been one of the funnest things. As you see, there’s a lot of Walnut Hill kids here, and they’re like, “Hey, you’re back! You’re here! You met us up here!” Like all the different kind of comments and things, and it honestly helped because they know me, they know my heart, they know my passion for them, and so they’ve helped me connect with the kids a little bit faster. To say like, “No, he’ll listen. He wants to know what’s going on. He wants to help. It’s OK. You can tell him.” The Walnut Hill kids have helped me kind of connect with the whole campus faster because their word has carried a lot of weight with their friends and things like that, helping me to ask the questions. I was in a leadership class the other day, just asking, “Hey, what do you want your high school experience to be?” And there was a handful of Walnut Hill kids in the room, and they had no problem speaking their mind and telling me what their thoughts were because they know me, and so it opened up the room for other kids to start sharing what they felt and what they wanted because the other students made it more comfortable for them. So it’s definitely been a bonus.
Is there anything else you want to share with the neighborhood and TJ community?
Come out and see us. We’ve got athletics galore. We’ve got a dinner theater show coming up in October. We want to see the alumni; we want to see the neighborhood coming out and supporting their students. And those others who aren’t maybe our students, just come and check us out and see what great things are going on at Thomas Jefferson, because I promise you that we will break whatever stigma you may have about us, because great things are happening at TJ, and we’re looking forward to becoming an A campus in one of the flagship schools of the district.
These interviews have been edited for clarity and brevity.
