Before jumping into his first administrative position as assistant principal, Clark Crawford began his educational journey in Kingfisher, Oklahoma where he found a love for math that grew into a career in the subject.
“I definitely excelled at math,” Crawford said. “That’s what kind of guided me to be a math teacher from the beginning.”
Following his passion for math, he pursued a career as a teacher in Choctaw. There he found a new love for administration.
“Once I got into education and became a teacher, I started observing the principals I had at the time,” Crawford said. “There, I saw the impact they had on the entire school rather than just a classroom, and that’s what motivated me to get my master’s degree and become a principal.”
While at Choctaw, Crawford was a teacher and a driving instructor, gaining knowledge and teaching over 500 drivers in the State of Oklahoma.
“The last five years as a teacher, I was a driving instructor for Dave’s driving school in Midwest City,” Crawford said. “I don’t know if there’s anything more stressful than driving with someone that doesn’t know how to drive, so one thing I learned while being a driving instructor is if you’re not calm, then the students aren’t calm. And so learning those skills to deal with stressful situations is probably the number one thing I learned.”
This year, Yukon High School posted a new position for an assistant principal, and seeing an opportunity, Crawford applied for the position and was selected to move into the interview stage of the hiring process.
“I think his passion for education and kids, being a teacher at the same school for eight years, and just how he talked highly about his kids and his administrators and what he had learned, that stood out and kind of sat him above the rest,” head principal Melissa Barlow said. “Most importantly, what I drew from him was his passion beyond the classroom.”
Yukon High School is a large school, having 2,638 students enrolled in-person and 112 virtual students, with the National average being around 514 students and the Oklahoma average even smaller with approximately 408 students, according to the Public School Review.
“My first Opinion of Yukon High School was, ‘Wow, this is a huge building,’ and just how many people: stakeholders, students, teachers, principals and everything that makes it work,” Crawford said. “I’m still amazed.”
Since his hiring, Crawford set out to connect with students and teachers in the community, create relationships and make an impact while performing his other duties as assistant principal.
“He has built relationships with kids and teachers that now reach out to him frequently,” assistant principal Micheal Perez said. “He’s been able to communicate with kids that others may not have been able to, and he’s been able to do that effectively.”