Former Skinner Magnet Elementary School principal officially stripped of title

OMAHA, Neb. —

The Omaha Public School Board officially stripped the former Skinner Magnet Elementary School principal of her title. The board filed a contract amendment to remove Tarina Cox-Jones’ administrative title in May. State data shows that since 2021, the elementary school consistently had fewer students on track than other schools.

At Monday night’s OPS Board of Education hearing, both the former Skinner Elementary principal and the chief talent officer for OPS were present. Neither of them gave comments, but both had lawyers there to present their arguments.

State data show OPS invested more money at Skinner Magnet Elementary School in the past four years than any other schools in the district, but that same data shows little progress.

“During the 2023-24 school year. Skinner was designated a comprehensive support and improvement by school. That is a designation given by the Department of Education. The school is performing in the bottom 5% of all title one schools statewide,” the attorney representing OPS said.

The data is one of the reasons the OPS board voted to strip Tarina Cox-Jones title as principal.

KETV Investigates looked at performance data for Skinner Elementary from the past four years.

Math performance for the 2021-22 school year was at 6 %; in the 2024-25 school year it rose to just 12%. By comparison, math district-wide was at 30% in the 2024-2025 school year.

For English Language Arts, Skinner Elementary performed anywhere between 11% and 20% between the 2021 and 2022 school year. The district was at 40% in the 2024 to 2025 school year.

“This is not a story of just one bad semester. Ms. Jones has led Skinner for 15 years, and the record shows she didn’t sustain efforts by the administration to help her succeed well beyond what the school principals,” the OPS attorney said.

The former principal’s lawyer argued against these claims.

“Her performance, while apparently being successful to some degree, does not result in a translation of teacher instructional justice. It seems to me that there could potentially be a staffing issue and not a leadership issue.” Cox-Jones’ lawyer said.

Cox-Jones claimed that per state law, OPS did not give her enough termination notice. She said OPS sent the notice on the last day of school.

“We think that amending a contract from an administrative position to teacher position, is outside the bounds of the law and technically because that’s a cancellation, not an amendment,” Cox-Jones’ attorney said.

OPS said this decision was not made lightly and the district felt like they had no other choice.

Under the amended contract, Cox-Jones will no longer hold her administrative title. She will now be considered an OPS teacher and keep her salary.