The SCHOOL BEGINS
School was to begin Monday, September 8, 1980. The teacher, Nelda Scoggins, was prepared, the books had been ordered, and nine students had registered for the Clarksville home school. Everything was moving on schedule — except there was no place to hold school. The St. Johns AME Church, which the Clarksville group was renting reluctantly agreed to allow the school to meet in their kitchen-social area on a temporary basis. All the members were praying for a more permanent place, and before the first month had passed, Don Malvaney was able to obtain a small building was offered with the payment of utilities as the only obligation (Wilson, 1981). It was located on the corner of Johnson and McKennan streets. Students included Pam, Chuck, and Chip Scoggins, Rob and Joy Malvaney, Steve Bartlett, and for a time Shannon, Theresa, and Jessie Landowski (Young, 1993).
In the summer of 1993 the church moved ahead with starting Clarksville Christian School. They met for the first year in the old Ludwig Community building on Highway 21. This building was heated with wood and ten students attended that year. In 1994, the Clarksville Christian School became a conference school and began meeting in the Johnson County Coon Hunters Club building, where they had to haul their own water for all purposes in a 200-gallon tank (Young, 1993). In the fall of 1994 the church built an L-shaped classroom addition to the church and the school was able to move into this room in January 1995 for the second semester. The school offered grades one to eight, employed one teacher, and was supported by the Clarksville and Ozark churches (Education Office). Donna Malvaney was the teacher for the first three years. Rick Schlaepfer was the teacher for the next two years and his wife, Cindy, taught a Kindergarten class the second year. Teena Wilson taught for the 1998-1999 school year, then had to move because of her husband’s employment. Susan Morgan moved there from Colorado and taught for three years. On year ten the school only had three students and Dianne Apgar moved from Tennessee to Clarksville to teach that year but only one student registered so it was decided to close the school in 2003. The school opened as a non-conference school for the 2009-2010 school year with six students and Eric and Dianne Wyatt teaching (Young, 2010).
Citations
Wilson, A. A. (1981, Jan. 8). Southwestern Union Record, p. 5.
Young, Mary. (1993). Clarksville SDA Church History. Unpublished.
Ibid. (2010).
How it all Began 