Clifton Public Schools Calendar 2026-2027

Clifton’s scale is visible in its numbered elementary network. Fourteen elementary schools serve the K–5 years, with preschool also operating through the Clifton Early Learner Academy and other district settings. Students then divide among Christopher Columbus, Maple Valley, and Woodrow Wilson middle schools before the three branches meet at Clifton High School.

The single high school is large enough that the district creates structure inside the campus. Mustang Academy is the freshman academy for ninth-grade transition rather than a separate attendance-area school. After that first year, students can move into broader academy, career, arts, JROTC, college-credit, and course-level options while remaining part of Clifton High. These internal routes should be distinguished from the middle-school boundary that determines where a student studies before grade nine.

Clifton centralizes in two steps. The elementary address determines one of many local schools; sixth grade reduces that network to three middle-school communities; ninth grade brings the city together at one high school and then reorganizes students through programs rather than geography. Families should trace the assigned middle school, but they do not need to compare competing high-school campuses. At the last stage, the more useful questions concern freshman support and program eligibility inside Clifton High.