Starting in the school year 2026-27, Lincoln and Douglass Schools will be structured differently.

Tuesday night, the Clinton Board of Education approved a plan that would move pre-K to Douglas School and kindergarten and first grade to Lincoln School. Principal of the two buildings, Jessica Patrick along with Scout Savage, Angela Ball, and District Curriculum Coordinator Kara Jensen presented plans of how they arrived at those decisions and reasoning for them.

One of the barriers to the current setup of the two buildings is class sizes and staff splitting time between the two buildings.

According to Savage, there were several things discussed when they brainstormed the idea. She says everything from the master schedule, programs and facilities were a part of the things staff brought up.

Feedback from both families of the district and staff was part of the process. Jensen points out the community feedback came back very positive.

After feedback from the community, staff, and full staff gathering from both buildings with Superintendent Drew Goebel and Jensen, the decision was then made to restructure the two buildings - pending approval of the Board of Education. 

From there, timing was the priority and Jensen indicates one of the concerns expressed was rushing into this change. The decision was made to wait a year and implement it in the school year 2026-27. 

Jensen believes there is a lot of benefit to a restructuring of the buildings to bring all students of the various grade levels together.

Goebel admitted there are a lot of unknowns with this transition, however, they are giving themselves a year to work through all the concerns of staff and come up with solutions over the next year.

Amanda Moser is a first-grade teacher and part of a curriculum leadership team spoke in favor of the plan but also the importance to teachers of being prepared for a big change being proposed.

The Clinton Junior High School library had many Lincoln and Douglass teachers in attendance Tuesday and Goebel spoke in support of the thoughts and feelings of everyone in the room who spoke and didn't speak.

The Board approved the restructuring plan unanimously.