Group of current, former employees at Kentucky middle school win $1 million Powerball

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — After years of playing the lottery, a group of employees from a Kentucky middle school finally got their payday.

A group of 30 current and former employees at Rector A. Jones Middle School in Florence, Kentucky, referring to themselves as the "Jones 30," matched five numbers in Saturday, Jan. 27's Powerball drawing, winning $1 million.

The group's organizer, a retired math teacher, discovered they had a winning ticket, and decided to keep the ticket safe in a math textbook.

“No one looks in a math book,” she joked. “I knew it would be safe there…page 200. I have checked this a thousand times.”

The group carpooled to the Kentucky Lottery office in Louisville on Tuesday to collect their winnings.

The group has been pooling their money together for more than eight years playing the Kentucky Lottery.

“We all taught at the same school at one point or another,” one winner said. “We’ve got counselors, admins, special ed teachers, the school nurse… Some have moved on or retired, but we still continue to do it. We’ve remained buddies for all of these years.”

The Jones 30 have been picking the same numbers each time they play since 2019.

“Our math teacher and assistant principal pulled them out of a hat,” one winner explained. “At first, we didn’t have the right amount of numbers to choose from, so we drew again. Thank goodness we did.”

After taxes, each person in the Jones 30 will receive $24,000, and the Kroger in Hebron, Kentucky, where the winning ticket was sold, will receive $10,000.

The group plans to continue playing the Kentucky Lottery as a fun way to keep in touch with one another.

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