On Aug. 18, Clarke Community School District superintendent Kurt DeVore released a letter to district families that stated that the 2023-24 school year will start on Monday, Aug. 28 instead of Wednesday, Aug. 23 for grades Kindergarten through 12; Clarke preschool will now begin on Tuesday, Sept. 5 instead of Wednesday, Aug. 30.
The letter, which can be found in its entirety on the Clarke Community School’s website: https://www.clarkecsd.org/o/clarke-community-schools/article/1208007, shared that both the elementary and middle/high school buildings have been undergoing various renovations and updates over the spring and summer months. However, the renovations taking place at the elementary building have experienced a contractor shortage with one of the subcontractors this week. As such, it became necessary to push back the start of the school year.
Some changes will be made to the school events that were planned for next week. The elementary open house is now Thursday, Aug. 24 from 4-6 p.m. Preschool open house will be Thursday, Aug. 31 from 4-6 p.m.
There are no changes to the 6th grade orientation (Monday, Aug. 21 from 5-5:30 p.m.), middle and high school open houses (Monday, Aug. 21 from 5:30-7 p.m.), Clarke in the Park (Tuesday, Aug. 22 from 5:30-8 p.m.), or 5th grade band display (Thursday, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m.).
Scheduled athletic events for next week will also take place as planned, with cross country at Woodward-Granger on Monday, Aug. 21; JV/varsity football at home on Friday, Aug. 25; and the Clarke volleyball varsity invitational on Saturday, Aug. 26.
The three school days - Aug. 23-25 - will not need to be made up at the end of the school year. School start and end times will remain the same.