Jay Clark

My career started as a music educator for grades 5-12. I am passionate about providing best practices that meet the needs of young adolescents - middle level education is important and is unique of elementary and secondary education. I am principal of Van Buren Middle School in the Van Buren Local School district in NW Ohio. I have worked with great people to lead district initiatives with strategic planning and digital learning, including implementing a 1:1 computing program, and worked with teaching teams to create experiential and place-based learning programs. I am a member of the University of Findlay College of Education advisory council, and a new principal mentor for the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators. I was excited to showcase our school's student-led conferences, contributing to the book Fostering Student Accountability through Student-Led Conferences by Patti Kinney and was a participant in Memory Mission in which administrators travel to the Dominican Republic on a school mission trip. I was named Ohio Middle Level Association Middle Level Educator of the Year in 2014 and am president of the Ohio Middle Level Education Association.