FAIRFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL assistant principal Jimmy Jowers receives a hardhat on announcement by the school board that he will be the intermediate school principal when construction is completed on the facility this spring. Eight years of working with elementary school students as an assistant principal caused Jimmy Jowers to shelve plans to return to coaching and stick to working with young students.

Jowers was hired last week by Fairfield Independent School District trustees as principal of the new intermediate school set to open in late May.

The new intermediate school principal has served as assistant principal at Fairfield elementary school since it opened in 2002.

“The good Lord puts you in places He wants you to be,” Jowers, 56, says. “So here I am, and I am excited.”

His decision to continue working with young students is a change in plans for the 27-year basketball coach.

When his son, Jake, accepted a basketball scholarship to LaTourneau University in Jacksonville, Jowers decided to take a job in school administration and move closer to his son than he would be at his prior job at Lampasas.

“My plan when Jake graduated was to go back into coaching,” the principal says.

But he and wife Pam, a pre-kindergarten teacher, found a home in Fairfield and a new direction.

“At this age level you can really make an impact on the kids,” Jowers says.

The principal has spent almost eight years with students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, and will continue with grades 3-5 when the intermediate school opens.

“I want to work to make the intermediate school a special place in the community,” he says.

Jowers was reared in San Marcos where his father was the men’s basketball coach at Southwest Texas State University, leading the team to a national championship during his tenure.

The new principal earned a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry and mathematics at SWTSU in 1975, attending on a football scholarship, and spent the next 27 years teaching mathematics and coaching.

After spending a year at Gonzales, he worked at Canyon high school in New Braunfels for three years, Madison high school in San Antonio for nine years, Samuel Clemons high school in Shertz for 12 years and Lampasas high school for two years.

Coaching duties included head basketball and cross country jobs, and time as a football defensive coordinator.

Jowers points out that he had an opportunity to pursue a doctorate degree in chemistry at Louisiana State University, but decided that coaching would be more enjoyable than spending his time in a laboratory.

The new principal sees his job as similar to that as a coach, coordinating the efforts and teachers and students for success.

“The most important thing is we need to do what’s best for the kids,” he says. “We need to all work together as a team and work for what’s in the kids’ best interest.”

Construction on the 72,000 square foot school started last year and is nearing its final stages. Jowers says a tentative schedule is for furnishing to be moved into the school in early May and students to move at the end of the month.

He has some experience in the undertaking, helping to open the elementary school in 2002.

Until then, Jowers has already started making preparations to step into his new job and will take groups of teachers to the intermediate school so they can get accustomed to their new workplace.

“I’m sure I’ll spend a lot of time over there,” he says.

The intermediate school will be staffed with 21 teachers. Aides, cafeteria workers and other personnel will bring the staffing level up to 45-50 people.

In addition to son Jake, who graduated college and is working as a certified public accountant with KPMG in Houston, the Jowers are parents of a daughter, Leslie Astrander, and have two grandchildren.