Clark County To Join Clarence Cannon Conference
Clark County To Join Clarence Cannon Conference
By Mike Scott
Clark County R-1 Schools have accepted an invitation to join the Clarence Cannon Conference beginning in 2010. On Friday, September 25, the CCR-1 school board met in special session to consider the invitation, which was extended on Wednesday evening. Brookfield is also leaving the Tri Rivers Conference to join the CCC.
“There are a lot of positives in this,” said CCR-1 Superintendent Ritchie Kracht.
The Clarence Cannon Conference offers improved opportunities for non-athletic students, including conference band and choir, art shows, and student council gatherings.
In addition, Clarence Cannon Conference teachers and administrators meet regularly to discuss curriculum and teaching techniques to improve student performance.
“And of course, there’s the athletics,” Kracht said.
Joining the CCC will ensure junior varsity games for the Indians to play. Currently, many Tri River Conference teams are unable to field JV team due to declining enrollments.
Football will be played in two divisions, divided by school sizes. In the larger division will be Clark County, Brookfield, Centralia, Macon and Palmyra. The smaller division teams will be Highland, Louisiana, Mark Twain, Monroe City and South Shelby.
In football, teams will play all the others in their division, plus three from the other division for a total of seven conference games.
“The only negative is a small amount of increased travel,” said Jason Church. However, Church pointed out that most of that travel would be on safer, four-lane highways.
Brookfield remains the longest trip.
“We need to do what’s best for our school for the next 20-25 years,” added Church.
“This is an opportunity that may not come again,” said Kracht. “The other schools are just going to continue to get smaller.”
The board approved the change with a unanimous vote.
In other business, the board voted to hire Klinger and Associates to perform a facilities need review for the district. Klinger previously worked with the district planning the elementary school electrical upgrades.
The CCR-1 district wants to seek a no-tax-increase bond issue next year to finance building improvements.
School Explains Decsion to Join CCC
Submitted By Jason Harper
As many of you may have heard, on Friday, September 25, the school board voted unanimously to join the Clarence Cannon Conference. The district received the invitation after a special meeting held by the Clarence Cannon Conference administrators in which they extended invitations to both Brookfield High School and Clark County High School. The Clarence Cannon Conference is held in high regard in academics, athletics and fine arts. The CCC has been in existence since 1944 and was then known as the Quint City Conference. In the 1960’s the conference became known as the Clarence Cannon. Clark County will be the third largest school in the Clarence Cannon Conference, smaller only than Centralia and Macon. Brookfield and Clark County will join the Clarence Cannon Conference for the 2010-2011 school year.
The district feels that the move is what is best for our long-term future academically. The Clarence Cannon has been a leader in setting up academic teams from each school in each of the four core subject areas. Our teachers will be invited to share and collect information at academic meetings that will ensure our success on state testing and preparing students for college entrance exams. The meetings will also allow our staff to learn ideas on how to improve the teaching of individual objectives in areas that we may have been weak, while other schools will be able get ideas from our staff as well. The academic meetings can alleviate any weakness that we may have in curriculum. Student council is an active conference event. Members of our student council will acquire additional leadership skills with the new conference affiliation.
Athletically, the CCC is a tough conference and that will prepare our teams in all sports for the postseason. We already compete against the majority of the conference schools in most sports. The conference has been recognized by MSHSAA for their sportsmanship program in which athletes, administration and fans are rewarded for outstanding sportsmanship. The conference will break the football teams into two divisions. Each team will play their four division opponents each year, and they will play 3 teams from the opposite division each year. In basketball and softball we will have a 9 team round robin schedule. The softball schedule will be filled in accordingly. The basketball schedule will take place on the last four Tuesdays of the regular season and the last five Fridays of the regular season. Conference track and golf will be similar to the current format with our teams attending the conference track meet and the conference golf meet.
The Clarence Cannon Conference has benefits for our fine arts as well. The all-conference band travels and performs at selected schools each year, and has a more comprehensive conference choir selection process as well. Art students will have a chance to compete at the Clarence Cannon Conference Art Show.
Clark County has been a proud member of the Tri-Rivers Conference since its inception in 1970. It was a tough decision to leave an outstanding conference, and the great relationships that have been built with its member schools over the years. The district still plans to compete with those Tri-Rivers Conference schools that wish to continue to play. Through time many of the schools have dropped enrollment numbers significantly and now compete in different class affiliations than our school. This was not a quick or easy decision for our district, but the decision came down to what would be best for our student body long term. After weighing all of the options; it became evident that this was a positive move forward for the district.
Current Tri-Rivers Conference Members:
Brookfield, Clark County, Putnam County, Scotland County, North Shelby, Milan, Schuyler County, Knox County
2010-2011 Clarence Cannon Conference
Highland, Louisiana, Mark Twain, Monroe City, Clark County, Brookfield, Centralia, Macon, South Shelby, Palmyra
