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HISTORY Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll founded the parish of St.
Clare in April of 1960. In August
of 1961, Fr. John W. Schlinkmann was appointed pastor, and plans were made for
the construction of a building that would house the Church and the proposed
school. The building was completed
in February, 1964. The upper floor
of the building was designated for classrooms, while the lower floor provided
room for a temporary church. St. Clare School opened in August of 1964 under the
direction of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, Florida.
The first principal of the school was Sr. John Kevin, S.S.J.
The enrollment for the first year of school was 170 students and the
tuition was twenty dollars a month. St.
Clare graduated its first eighth grade in June, 1969 when 34 students received
their diplomas from Fr. Schlinkmann. The present St. Clare Church was completed in the summer of
1969, and the building that served as both Church and school is now used solely
as a school. Enrollment rose to 481
students, and Sr. Elizabeth Ann was the fourth principal.
In August of 1970, St. Clare Parish was split, and two new parishes, St.
Paul of the Cross and St. Ignatius Loyola, were created.
St. Clare School began to serve the children of the two new parishes as
well as the parish of St. Jude in Tequesta.
At the conclusion of the school year 1970-71, the Sisters of St. Joseph
withdrew the community of nuns, and from then to the present, St. Clare faculty
has consisted of lay personnel only. In
August of 1971, Mr. Ernest Rovella became the first lay principal and enrollment
had risen to 548 students. In July 1974, Harold F. Shanz was appointed principal.
A remedial reading program was introduced to the school.
In 1976, a speech therapy program and a school band program were
inaugurated and a school psychologist was added.
In 1977, the present parish hall was completed and is used as the school
lunchroom. A library was built in
1978 capable of seating 40 students. The
first self-study was completed and the school was accredited by the Florida
Catholic Conference in May, 1979. In
addition, six acres of land were developed for athletic purposes, and the
athletic program grew to sixteen teams. A
kindergarten was begun at the beginning of the school year 1985-86 and a new
library was constructed and completed in early April, 1986. Mr. A. J. Houvouras was appointed as principal in 1989.
The school embarked on a long-range marketing plan to increase enrollment
from the 390 students. Enrollment
rose steadily over the next five years to over 500 students.
The school served parishes of northern Palm Beach County which consisted
of St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Paul of the Cross, St. Jude, St. Peter, St. Patrick,
and St. Clare. In 1989, the Kindergarten building was expanded and remodeled and now contains two Kindergarten classes. Also, in 1989, the school instituted its own on-sight computer lab, which was placed in the media center. During the 1990’s through today, the school added additional computers, established a computer rotation and it presently has over one hundred computers that are networked through two servers with full access to the Internet through a T1 line. Other enhancements to the school through the nineties and even into the 2000’s were a fire alarm, a new intercom system, a new playground, a chapter of the National Junior Honor Society, a school counselor, Spanish, a school endowment trust which, as of 2003, has a balance of approximately $750,000, a security system, two resource teachers, a full-time assistant principal, a school nurse, teacher assistants in grades K-2, a teacher salary scale, televisions and VCR’s in each classroom and a school news broadcast. |