BUSD extends Jones' contract, superintendent declines raise

The Bonsall Unified School District extended the contract of BUSD superintendent David Jones, who declined the raise the school board offered.

Jones, who was hired in 2017, was given a three-year contract at the time which paid $165,000 annually. A performance evaluation earlier this year led to an extension of his contract.

“They did a positive performance evaluation at the June meeting,” Jones said.

That evaluation led to a 5-0 vote to offer Jones a new three-year contract which will expire June 30, 2022.

“They just extended it to a three-year contract,” Jones said.

The replacement of the final year of the original contract with a new contract was initially at a different salary.

“The board offered me a $10,000 salary increase, and I declined it,” Jones said.

Jones requested that the new contract be for $165,000 annually rather than $175,000 annually, and a 5-0 BUSD board vote, Aug. 14, approved his new contract at his existing salary.

“We want to get into a better financial situation for the district,” Jones said.

The school district’s teachers received a 1% raise for the 2018-2019 school year.

“Now I’m looking forward to completing 18 months of negotiations with CSEA,” Jones said.

Jones said he hoped to be able to provide a 1% raise for the Classified School Employees Association members.

“We want to be fair with what the teachers received,” he said.

Jones said he is willing to receive a raise when school district finances improve.

“A different time, I think, will be better,” he said.

The positive performance evaluation means more to Jones than the $30,000 he declined, he said.

“I just want to be able to do what I love to do,” he said.

Jones was hired by the Bonsall Unified School District in August 2017 after the previous superintendent, Justin Cunningham, retired. Jones had previously been the superintendent of the Vallecitos School District and the principal of Vallecitos Elementary School, taking that position in 2011 after seven years as the principal of Carmel Del Mar Elementary School in the Del Mar Union School District.

He began his education career as a teacher in Minnesota for seven years before moving to Southern California and becoming an assistant principal in Orange County for three years.