A group of 30 current and former employees of a Kentucky middle school won a $1 million Powerball jackpot, and for them, consistency was key.
The Kentucky Lottery announced that the group, who refer to themselves as the “Jones 30,” carpooled to the lottery office after work on Tuesday, walking into the lobby with “cheers” and the winning ticket securely tucked away in the last place anyone would think to look for it − a math textbook.
“No one looks in a math book,” the group’s organizer, a retired math teacher joked. “I knew it would be safe there…page 200. I have checked this a thousand times.”
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The group of past and present school staffers, who all at one point or another worked at Rector A. Jones Middle School in Florence, had been pooling their money together to play the lottery for over eight years.
“We all taught at the same school at one point or another,” one winner said, per the lottery. “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.”