Superintendant Seid announces retirement

Clarke Superintendent Steve Seid announced his retirement will be June 30, 2021.

Seid began his career in 1984 teaching math, reading and social in Des Moines. He was a middle school principal in Des Moines, Clarke and Sadel and a high school principal in Keota. He has been the Clarke Superintendent since 2014.

“I had been a principal for many years and it really made me want to look at the work in a larger scope, education in general in a larger scope,” said Seid. “So it really intrigued me to be a superintendent and to positively impact all those different facets of a school district.”

Seid and his wife, Carole, who is an associate superintendent, have been planning to retire together. Now that she is able to retire their plan will come to fruition in the spring of 2021. Within the last year they had really begun to look at that possibility and have now decided it was a good time for both of them.

“The stars had aligned and it was something that we are now able to move forward with,” said Seid.

After being in administrative positions for about 30 years Seid is excited to spend his retirement with family and being there for special events that he sometimes had to miss out on due to his career. His main goal is to be more present for family things but the soon to be retiree’s also want to begin to travel and see some new things. Seid finished his chemotherapy treatments for cancer nearly two years, with a clean bill of heath now, he is excited to begin this new journey and spend extra time with his family.

“There’s a possibility that since Carole and I have been involved with School Administrator Manager (SAM) we may continue doing some work with that organization with the training of principals around the Midwest,” said Seid. “It’s an organization that we feel we may stay connected with. It’s hard to completely set away when you’ve been doing this as long as we have. Public school means a lot to both of us so we want to make sure we stay connected.”

Seid is proud of his seven years at Clarke. Seid has been instrumental in getting most of the current administrative team into their current positions. He is very proud of the work that the administrative team does and was happy to have brought them into the fold.

He has overseen the upgrade of the football field, soccer sports and high school construction. There has been a remodel of the the elementary office, high school locker rooms, cafeteria and new classrooms, safety features have been added to both buildings, a new bus barn has been constructed as well as a new road to the high/middle school campus.

“The kids for years and years to come will have facilities and athletic complexes that they can be proud of,” said Seid. “It’s a place where they can go and get a really good education and be proud of the facilities.”