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Middle school principals give up high-profile posts for classroom

Reid Williams

FRISCO – Students returning to Summit Middle School next fall will meet a new principal, but the former administrators won’t be far away.

Middle school principal Mark Clark is giving up the reins at the school to return to teaching. Coincidentally, so is the school’s vice principal, Carolyn Wolsiefer.

Clark spent his first nine years at the school as an instrumental music teacher and will return to teaching the same subject. He said he was excited to make the change and knew it was something he eventually would do.



“I’ve got a young family,” Clark said. “It’s a good time to make the switch and I’d like to spend more time with them.”

Clark has two children, a first-grader and an eighth-grader. He expects to have the latter in class next fall. “I’m looking forward to it, I don’t know if she is,” he said.



Clark has been with Summit Schools 22 years, serving as principal the past four.

Wolsiefer will be returning to an eighth-grade math class. She has worked under Clark as vice principal for three years. Before that, she taught math in Virginia for 10 years. Wolsiefer said she hadn’t seriously considered an administrative position until she moved to Summit County and met the people in the school district. She said she’s excited to switch from being responsible for 700 students to 100 students.

“I learned a lot from the job – dealing with parents and other things,” Wolsiefer said. “I’m excited about it and I feel blessed that I’m working in a school that will let me do this.”

Former Summit High School varsity football coach, health and physical education teacher Tom Dickey will be filling in as vice principal when the middle school opens in the fall. Superintendent Wes Smith said Dickey has not yet completed his administrative certification requirements, but will be busy with coursework over the summer. Dickey will serve as vice principal for at least one year, Smith said, and after that the decision to stay on will be based on who the new principal is.

Smith said he will be searching for a new principal and said, despite rumors, there are no plans to transfer one of the high school’s two principals to the middle school. He said he understands why some school chiefs head back to the classroom.

“I look at administration sometimes and say I wouldn’t want to do that,” Smith said. “There are days you really miss the teaching.”


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