Clarkdale-Jerome School District — comprised of one school, Clarkdale-Jerome Elementary School — is one of the Verde Valley’s hidden gems.
“No news is good news, I guess,” CJSD Superintendent and CJES Principal Scott Jacobson joked, hiding a bit of truth in plain sight: His district boasts roughly 475 students, many of whom are not from Clarkdale or Jerome. Enrollment has grown significantly in the past few years. There is a waiting list to get in each spring.
“Our community is very proud of us,” Jacobson said. “And we’re very fortunate to have a lot of students who want to come here from outside the district.”
According to Jacobson, the school is already near capacity. If the growth trend continues, as Jacobson thinks it will, the K-8 school may be looking at expanding its facilities in the next decade to accommodate the demand.
Jacobson himself is a busy man. After two-and-a-half years as principal, he took on the additional role of superintendent when longstanding superintendent Kathleen Fleenor retired at the end of last year. It was a planned transition, but one that Jacobson admitted takes up a lot of resources.
“It is a big time sink, but I enjoy it. The responsibility begins and ends with me,” he said, adding that he regularly visits classrooms and heads the school’s homework club. On one recent occasion when a bus driver called in sick, he climbed behind the wheel and personally dropped kids off at their stops.
“I would never ask someone to do something I wouldn’t do,” Jacobson added. “You have to be visible.”
Jacobson praised the five-person CJSD Governing Board, saying that they had offered a lot of support to the district’s administrators, teachers and families. In a district the size of CJSD, the relationships formed are all the more important. Oftentimes, people are tasked to work double or even triple duty to get the job done.
“We wear many hats when we’re this small,” the former math teacher and sometimes-bus-driver explained, listing the roles he has now embraced as part of his employment. “I’ve been trained in a lot of things, but you don’t really know something until you do it …. No one day is the same, which is why I love it.”
All the same, Jacobson smiled as he admitted that he is happy to have an assistant principal, Steve Doerksen.
“It’s an amazing school,” Jacobson said, adding that many of his teachers have over 20 years experience. A few boast over 30 years in the field.
