94
All In It Together
WORDS: Lela Rast Hartsaw
PICTURE: Whitney Patton
If Executive Director of Secondary
Education for Manatee County Schools
was an elected position, the type of
leader parents, administrators, teachers,
and students would vote for would be
Willie Clark.
Luckily, there was no need for an election,
and Mr. Clark, as of July 1, is the new
Executive Director of our Middle and
High Schools. What does that mean for
our schools and our community? The six
(soon to be seven) high schools in Manatee
County and our eight (soon to be nine)
middle schools are in capable hands.
Mr. Clark was raised in Manatee County.
He attended Jessie P. Miller Elementary
and King Middle before moving to
California. After school and a career in
football, Mr. Clark moved back to Manatee
County and over the last decade has held
several important positions within our
school district.
Most recently Mr. Clark was Manatee
County Schools’ Director of Student
Services. When asked what he did for
those two years he mentioned MTSS, a
school district acronym (they use a LOT
of acronyms) which means Multi-Tiered
System of Support. Just what did that
look like?
Mr. Clark was the one school administrators
looked to when they faced mechanical
issues, weather events, school-wide
computer issues… you name it. Mr. Clark
helped orchestrate assistance, including
academics and discipline, for our schools
so that administrators could focus on what
they needed to focus on the students.
Before that, Mr. Clark was the Principal
at Palmetto High School for seven years.
His number one goal has always been
to help students be the best they can be
and he has consistently shown that he
understands that this means rolling up
his sleeves and getting to work.
Mr. Clark recognizes that each child
is different and requires a different
type of and amount of support. He has
successfully worked in tandem with
teachers to offer this type of differentiated
support for the students under his care.
Mr. Clark is uniquely qualified as Executive
Director of Secondary Schools because
he also spent two and a half years as
Principal of Sugg Middle School. He
knows the challenges of both middle
and high school levels of education and
has mastered juggling those challenges.
He has seen the power of teamwork and
operates under the notion that it most
definitely does take a village to raise and
educate children.
His response to what he sees as the
district’s biggest challenge was immediate
and he quickly named not one, but three
areas: school security, accountability,
and meeting the challenges presented by
the Digital Age. His goal is to work smart
and assist in continuing the momentum
MCSD students and staff have gained
as Manatee County Schools achieved
a District Letter Grade of a B this past
school year.
The ultimate goal is a 100% graduation
rate. This married father of three boys
knows that the key to reaching this goal
is parent involvement. He would like to
remind parents that “we are all in this
together.” He feels open communication
is paramount to this effort. Mr. Clark says
parents should be aware of their student’s
school work and social activities and
if they notice anything, anything at all,
parents should place a call to the school
or send an email and start a conversation.
The schools in Manatee County are
staffed with phenomenal teachers and
administrators who can’t be expected
to operate in a vacuum. Parents and
community members need to play an
active role in the success of our schools.
Willie Clark is able to help facilitate this. He
has his sleeves rolled up, and he’s ready to
tackle the future, in a positive way.