By Christopher Johnson
If you’ve driven past Clare Public Schools lately, you’ve noticed. Roads are closed. Equipment is moving. Ground is breaking, and buildings that have stood largely unchanged for decades are finally getting some loud company. Just in time for some 70 degree weather.
Superintendent Matthew Forsberg says it all traces back to a vision the district has been working toward for years, and a community that decided to invest in it.
“The master plan essentially is to connect the current primary school to the current high school so that students aren’t walking outside and having to change buildings for different classes,” Forsberg said.
About $12.5 million of the funding came from a bond passed by voters in 2024. The remaining roughly $4.5 to $5 million came from reserves the school board had been building over the past decade — a combination of COVID-era dollars and money set aside in anticipation of exactly this kind of project. All told, approximately $17 million in construction is currently underway across the campus.
Three major projects are happening simultaneously. The first is a new cafeteria addition on the north side of the primary school. Currently, the primary school gymnasium doubles as a lunchroom, meaning the space is unavailable for gym classes from roughly 10 AM to 1 PM. each day. The new dedicated cafeteria will free up the gym for full-time use. A change Forsberg says makes the primary school a building the district plans to keep.
“Other than being a little small, it’s in pretty good shape, and we know it’s something that we’re going to want to keep using,” he said.
The second project is a new classroom addition: Eight rooms coming off the east end of the primary-middle school complex, extending toward the high school. That addition is just beginning to break ground. The third is a new gymnasium attached to the high school, the most visible piece of the construction for anyone passing by. Which towers from a fenced off complex near the high school’s entrance.
Forsberg is hoping to have the cafeteria ready for the upcoming school year. The new classrooms are targeted for the start of the 2027 school year, with the gymnasium potentially opening sometime during the 2026-27 school year as well.
The long arc of the plan points toward eventually replacing the middle school, a building Forsberg notes is now over 105 years old. That conversation has come with questions about the building’s historic murals, which are owned by the federal government. Any decision about their removal or relocation would require federal approval, and Forsberg says a cost estimate obtained a few years ago put that process in the “extremely expensive” range. No firm plan exists yet for the murals or for the building itself.
“There’s not a firm plan to tear down the middle school at this point either,” he said.
Forsberg, who grew up in the Freeland area and has lived in Clare for more than 20 years, came to the district nine years ago as high school principal before stepping into the superintendent role. He taught industrial education and math in Freeland, McBain, and Beaverton before arriving here, and has two daughters who attended Clare schools.
He sees the construction moment as an opportunity for community engagement, not just infrastructure. He hosts a “Soup with the Superintendent” event twice a year. Once in fall, once in spring, and says building updates are currently a heavy part of those conversations. He’s encouraging residents with questions, ideas, or concerns to reach out directly or attend one of those sessions.
“My goal as a superintendent is to match community with the schools as much as we possibly can,” Forsberg said, believing it to be an important relationship. “With things going on here, the hospital stuff, the gas station on the north end, the Amazon building, there’s a lot going on for sure.”
The school district can be reached through the administrative office. Forsberg can be contacted there directly.
