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Board accepts superintendent’s recommendation to terminate North Little Rock attendance clerk Michelle Jones
Summary
After hearing testimony, the North Little Rock School District board voted to accept the superintendent’s recommendation to terminate Michelle Jones, following an October restraint incident and an audit that found edits to her child’s attendance records without supporting documentation.
The North Little Rock School District board voted on Feb. 18 to accept the superintendent’s recommendation that Michelle Jones be terminated from her employment contract after the administration presented evidence and witnesses.
The administration, represented by attorney Jay Beckett, told the board it was recommending termination on two fronts: a behavioral incident on Oct. 8 in which Jones restrained a first‑grade student and later concerns arising from Jones’s work as an attendance clerk. "This hearing is about holding Miss Jones responsible for her conduct," Beckett said in closing, summarizing the administration's position that the restraint and subsequent eSchool edits were separate but cumulative bases for discipline.
Principal Lissa Harrison testified that she watched video of an October hallway incident and that, "she was restraining him and he is trying to pull away from her," and that Jones was placed on administrative leave and later suspended while the district and law enforcement investigated. Harrison also told the board that an audit of attendance records showed entries where a teacher marked a tardy that was later reversed in eSchool by an account matching "M Jones," and that administrators found no contemporaneous documentation to justify those changes.
Jones disputed the administration’s account, saying she did not falsify attendance records and that she had attempted to maintain documentation in a desk folder at the school. She also said she had been reassigned to a classroom role for several months, had limited training and was asked to clear a backlog of attendance work when she returned. "I didn't falsify attendance records," Jones said while denying intentional wrongdoing and arguing she had been insufficiently trained and supported.
Attorneys for both sides questioned witnesses about the timeline, whether supporting excuse notes existed at the school and whether Jones had been instructed on proper procedures. Beckett told the board the district’s audit had identified changes made to records for Jones’s own child, and said those edits—changes from tardy or unexcused to excused—lacked required supporting documentation.
After closing arguments, the board moved and seconded the administration’s recommendation. The motion was adopted; the chair announced the board accepted the superintendent’s recommendation that Jones’s employment contract be terminated.
What happens next: The board treated this as a personnel decision based on the administration’s recommended discipline; the personnel action will be reflected in district human resources records and—per board procedure—was accepted without public roll‑call tallies published in the transcript packet.
Note: Video excerpts and exhibit packets were presented to the board during the hearing; several witnesses, including school administrators and the employee, testified in detail about training, documentation and timing of events.
