Welcome Clarke High School’s new Principal, Joe Blazevich.
New administration positions continue to be filled at Clarke Community Schools. Kicking off the 2023-24 school year, the district welcomes 30-year education and administration veteran, Joe Blazevich to lead the high school as Principal. Positioned to be the overall administrative director for the high school, Blazevich started with the Clarke district July 3rd.
“When the chance came up to move to Clarke as Principal, I saw tremendous opportunities to build on the work previous administrations started,” said Blazevich.
Blazevich grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and attended college at Northwest Missouri State University (NWMSU) in Maryville, MO. In his first administrative job at Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School in Omaha, Nebraska, Blazevich drew from his experiences at NWMSU and implemented systems to help increase school fundraising, community engagement, and bolster collaboration between the students, the parents, and the faculty at Gross.
Over his eight years there, he transitioned from teacher to Activities Director and on to Assistant Principal. His focus was on building not only academic excellence for his students but also establishing strong community support for the school.
“Building and strengthening the whole academic community has been at the heart of every role I’ve had over my career,” said Blazevich. “Clarke is poised for success and I’m excited to help our students and our administrators get rolling.”
After more than 20 years in the Omaha area, the Joe and his wife, Libby, moved with their two children, Grace and Payne to Des Moines, Iowa. There, he took on the Des Moines School District’s Activities Director position. Responsible for the ten middle schools in the district, Joe took the opportunity to use his role to increase preparedness for students transitioning to high school as well as strengthening intra-school relationships among all the high schools and middle schools throughout the district.
Two years after starting his district-wide position, Blazevich was transferred to Des Moines’ Roosevelt High School where he served as Assistant Principal for 11 successful years. At Roosevelt, he helped establish administrative and student support programs focused on building life skills and increasing overall graduation rates.
“Helping students and staff understand that life will constantly challenge you and how to manage that, was one of my primary efforts,” said Blazevich. “Through regular communications and building support mechanisms across all levels of the school, we were able to make each graduating class more successful than the prior.”
In his first year at Clarke, Mr. Blazevich is, again, looking to establish strong relationships with the students and the staff and get everyone moving toward the same goals. Using the school improvement plan Clarke has in place, he’ll then work toward increasing student academic success and bolstering Clarke High School’s community pride.