Bill Jones, 55, principal of White City Elementary School, promises to continue the decentralized and community-based school management that he initiated two decades ago and outgoing Eagle Point Superintendent Ted Adams has championed. Jones says he views the community and staff role in school operations as the district's greatest strength. He takes over at the end of the month, when Adams becomes superintendent of the 13,000-student Ogden, Utah district.

Jones won the appointment with strong support of sitting board members and two incoming board members -- officers who won election over incumbents.

Those elections in March capped off nearly a year of turmoil in the nine-school district. Parents have made numerous complaints about the district, mostly centering on lack of leadership and centralized control.

Although a majority in district surveys said they generally supported both Adams and his hands-off management style, others called for his resignation.

Jones says he will continue the practice of allowing individual schools in each of the district's four communities to set their own course, However, Jones says he intends to establish more central control over operations and give more direction to staff.

"I'll be more involved," Jones says. "The word `direction' is not necessarily the right word, but it's a fair word."

Board members have praised Jones for being in the vanguard of successful and popular reforms. His elementary school and neighboring Mountain View Elementary were the first in the district to give parents a choice of schools.

White City Elementary also pioneered multigrade classrooms and a now-common practice in the district of keeping a group of students together with the same teacher for several years. Some research has shown that students learn more easily in that kind of environment.

Jones also urged parents to participate in school programs and invited community groups to use school facilities. His school became a popular meeting site for a number of groups.

He has been personally involved in the community, serving on the board of the urban renewal agency, the executive committee of the Upper Rogue Family Center and the board of ACCESS community action agency.

"We made the school accessible to anybody," Jones says. "I know that doesn't sound like much now, but it was different then."

His idea was that if families felt better about the school, children would learn more.

In the past few years, White City students have turned in some of the state's highest achievement test scores -- despite conditions like family poverty, which generally cause test scores to fall.

Jones credited his predecessor with strengthening parents' role in education.

"Ted has really instilled the idea in schools that parents need to be an equal partner in education and that the schools are responsible for all kids."

Through the years, Jones has won notice for his work. The nationally known Milken Family Foundation of Los Angeles honored Jones in 1994. The foundation recognizes 150 educators in 30 states yearly for making "exemplary contributions to excellence in education."

The Oregon Elementary School Principals Association in 1994 named Jones national distinguished principal. He began his career in 1966, teaching second-grade in Silverton. He says he was motivated by his own teachers.