Board appoints Olympic Heights High principal

Just a week after Olympic Heights Principal David Clark announced he would be stepping down to help care for his ailing wife, the district has named his successor — a veteran who once spent more than seven years on the campus as an assistant principal.

Kelly Burke will be leaving her post as principal at Addison Mizner Elementary to head for the high school in Boca Raton’s suburbs.

A Pittsburgh native, Burke, 48, began her teaching career in 1993 working with special education students at Westward Elementary in West Palm Beach. From there, she headed to Boca Raton Middle. By 2004, she had landed at Olympic Heights as the assistant principal in charge of curriculum.

In 2012, she left Olympic Heights to take the top job at Addison Mizner.

“I told the staff yesterday I felt like I was coming home,” Burke said of her informal meeting on campus Tuesday.

Burke worked for three principals, including Clark, in her more than seven years at Olympic Heights.

Clark revealed last week that he would be taking an extended leave to be with his wife, who was principal at Polo Park Middle in Wellington. Ann Clark took a leave of absence several weeks earlier and was replaced by an interim principal last month.

David Clark told his staff last week that he was making the move to help his wife with ongoing health issues, the Olympic Heights student newspaper, The Torch, reported.

In another personnel move, the board named former Principal Pamela Arnette the interim principal at Liberty Park Elementary in Greenacres.