31 Jul 2021 New superintendent considers district, church and region to be tops

By Stefanie Brazile

Jeff Collum has accepted a job with huge responsibilities and he couldn’t be more excited about it. Following the footsteps of a retiring Conway Schools Superintendent is a role that he stepped into with peace of mind and honor on July 1.

“Conway is one of the premier districts in the state,” Collum said. “They have a high academic performance and great community. I love the school district and the community that wraps around the district.”

Collum is qualified to make the assessment after working in education for 24 years, with nine of those years as superintendent for a range of school districts. Most recently, he served in Hallsville, Texas, which has 17,000 virtual and in-person students. By comparison, Conway School District is 7A, with about 10,000 students. He also led another large Arkansas school district.

“When I served at Benton School District from 2012 to 2016, I heard good things about Conway,” he said.

Growing up in Shelbyville, Texas, Collum played basketball, football and ran track. While attending Lamar University in Beaumont, he played basketball for their travel team. Although his parents worked tirelessly in education until retirement, his interests lay in sports medicine until his senior year of college when he was asked to finish out a semester for a high school coach and teacher.

“I absolutely fell in love with it and have never regretted choosing the field,” he said. “Growing up, I was at the school early and was at the school late. We were the last kids to leave because Mom and Dad were always in meetings and working, so that’s what I knew growing up.”

Besides education, he’s also passionate about his wife, Cara, and their three sons. His mother-in-law lives with the family to help with their 15-, 13- and 8-year-old, and his mother lives in Longview, Texas. After the loss of his father a few years back, Collum has remained close to his two brothers.

“My family is so important to me,” he said, smiling. “I’m very family-centered, very faith-centered. I also love New Life Church – we’ve had connections there for years. So, we have an amazing church and community here.

“I’ve got an opportunity as a dad and I’m really beginning to reflect on my time with those older two because it is growing shorter. This is an exciting and important time as a family for us to be here.”  

Their sons will attend Conway Public Schools and Cara will continue working as a counselor for a virtual school. 

As a hunter, fisherman and outdoorsman, Collum always loved coming to Arkansas to pursue his hobbies. “When you mix getting to enjoy work and your personal life — what a great opportunity!”

His top goal for the year is to help students reenter school and create as normal an environment as possible. “They’ve had a very hard year, almost two years,” he said.

Another priority is to get to know the community and the district by going out and being on the campuses, seeing things in motion and seeing people in action, he said. 

“I’ve heard great things about this district for a long time, so it’s cool to be here now. So the goal is to let me understand what has made them great – [to] let me see that and let me build on that and add to that.”

The superintendent is quick to praise the “rock solid” team that Greg Murry built during his 14-year tenure. 

“If there’s a task to be done, I need to be one of the first people to the job,” Collum said. “If there’s a change to be made, I need to be able to explain that and walk through that process with the people that are going to have to make that change. 

“I like to have a good team of people with me, and so I spend a lot of time and energy trying to build the team and build relationships and pull people together, and then we go and do the work.” 

With the foundation of his experience, the support of his family and admiration for the job and community, Collum feels on top of the world and sure this is where he’s supposed to be at this time.