Coaches and Teachers become Principals. Principals move into the front office, some even becoming Superintendents of Schools. It is what could be labeled as the “progression of the profession.” At least for the good ones. David Brown easily falls into that category, so the announcement by the Jackson Parish School Board that the Jonesboro native would be the new Supervisor of Transportation and Maintenance was no surprise and just reward for a man who has dedicated his life to helping the youth of Jackson Parish mature. 

“To say I am honored to be selected for this position is an understatement,” said Brown. “It is what your long term goal is when you start a career in education and I am very appreciative of the opportunity.”

Brown, who has worked in the Jackson Parish school system for 24 years, most recently as Principal of the Jonesboro-Hodge Middle School, takes over for Roy Barlow, who retired this year. While “moving on up” was always a goal the decision to take the offer, which one would think would be easy, was a hard one.

“I loved what I was doing,” reflected Brown. “For me it has always been about wanting to help young people mature athletically, academically and as a person. To think about not working with the kids anymore made the decision difficult but in the end this was simply to good of an opportunity to pass up.”

The son of David and Judy Brown of Jonesboro is married to Jennifer (Calhoun) Brown and father of two daughters, Madison, age 21 who recently graduated from Louisiana Tech and Jessica (McClung) who has a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and resides at Fort Benning, GA where here husband is an Army Chaplin. 

After graduating from Jonesboro-Hodge High School in 1983 where he was a member of the Class 2A state championship winning boys basketball team, Brown worked with his father, who owned Jonesboro Motor Supply for more than a decade. Finally the longing that he had buried for years forced itself to surface.
“I always wanted to coach high school sports,” said Brown. “I was fortunate to watch many good coaches and teachers and saw how they impacted kids lives. As I grew older I knew I wanted to try and make a difference for young people too like they did.”  

Brown got his first opportunity as the Track and Boys Basketball coach at Quitman High in 1998. He stayed there until 2001 where he moved to his alma mater, leading the Tigers to the state tourney in 2002. In 2004 Brown completed the Jackson Parish tri-fecta by becoming a coach at Weston High where he stayed for 14 years. During his tenure there he led the WHS golf team to two state titles and a state runner-up finish in three years (2010-12)  and two state title in track, a boys title in 2011 and a girls state championship in 2014. He also coached the Lady Wolves basketball team and was an assistant on the boys team leading both to several district titles and Class B quarterfinal finishes. In 2018 Brown was promoted to Assistant Principal at Jonesboro-Hodge Middle School before taking over as Principal this past year.