State football championship was highlight of 2023 for Perry School District

Jan. 22—History was made in the Perry School District in 2023 when the Perry High School football team captured the Division V state football championship.

The Perry Pirates won the title on Dec. 2 by defeating Liberty Center 21-14 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.

With the victory, Perry finished the season with a 16-0 record. The team also earned the first state football title in the school's history.

While the football team created plenty of excitement on the district's campus in Perry Village, Schools Superintendent Jack Thompson also noticed how the championship season energized and united the entire Perry community.

"The people that reached out and came out, and the stories and the legends and the interactions that happened," Thompson said. "Until you experience it, you can't describe it. It was something that I'll always humbly just feel so honored to be able to have been a part of. It was just a wonderful time in this great community's history."

Thompson provided a summary of the district's major accomplishments of the past year and top goals for 2024.

One of the district's successes in 2023 was putting itself in a better financial position than it had been in recent years, Thompson said.

There were several factors that contributed to that strong financial performance, including reducing staff through attrition.

"We had eight or nine people leave us through retirement, and so we were able to not replace many of those, and also move a lot of folks around, into very strategic positions in the district, to help students achieve," Thompson said.

Perry Schools also received additional funding from the state, and the district's investments brought in more revenue because of higher interest rates.

"So those three things put us in great financial shape," Thompson said.

Other significant 2023 achievements included:

—The district carried out a succession plan intended to retain strong financial leadership.

Jennifer Capo began duties as the district's chief financial officer on Sept. 1. She took over a position held for 19 years by Lew Galante.

Although Galante resigned his full-time position, he continues to assist the district as an independent consultant.

Capo had served as the district's assistant treasurer for five years. Her rise to CFO was an event that the district had been counting on, Thompson said.

"We hired Jen seven years ago in what was somewhat of a succession plan for making a smooth transition when Lew moved on," he said.

Capo started as an accounting manager with Perry Schools, before being promoted to assistant treasurer in 2018. During that same year, she also became certified as a school treasurer.

Earlier in 2023, Perry School Board developed and approved a plan to appoint Capo as the district's chief financial officer. Galante agreed to resign, but also signed a contract to serve as a consultant.

"Lew's going to continue to provide us with financial support, human resources support, support with lobbying state legislators, and those sort of things," Thompson said.

Capo received a pay increase with her promotion while Galante, in his consulting contract, accepted a decrease in compensation.

"We were able to do this in a cost-neutral approach," Thompson said. "So we feel like we were able to solidify long-term stability in our finance department over time, and accomplished that without costing more money to the district."

—The district appointed Coni Steverding as director of growth and development. In this position, Steverding will ensure that the district provides its certified staff with "the professional development and growth that they need, as far as being strong, instructional professionals in the classrooms," Thompson said.

Steverding moved into the new role after previously serving as Perry Elementary School's dean of students.

—At Perry High School, 99 percent of all seniors graduated in 2023. Thompson termed that near-perfect graduation rate as "an outstanding achievement."

In 2024, some of the district's important projects will include:

—Opening a new welding lab on the Perry Schools campus.

The district has received a $308,000 grant from the Ohio Innovation Workforce Incentive Program to construct the lab. Welding courses for students will begin at the start of the 2024-25 academic year, Thompson said.

—It's anticipated that students at Perry High School who are taking a home-renovation course will complete an upgrade project involving a house at 3576 Main St. in Perry Village.

Students get hands-on experience in various aspects of home construction and improvements, as they work under the tutelage of their teacher, Ryan Zusy, as well as professional contractors.

This is the second residential structure that home-renovation classes from the high school have used as a real-word classroom.

Perry Schools was able to use the surplus funds to buy the current project house at 3576 Main St. for $138,000 in March of 2023.

Renovation of the Main Street house is expected to be completed this spring. At that point, the district will decide if it will attempt to sell the house immediately or wait a while, depending on real-estate market conditions, Thompson said.

"So if the market is right to flip, we'll flip the house," he said. "If it's not, we have plans where we can do expansion or an addition on the house and increase its value, and keep educating more of our students as they continue to work on the house."

—Later this year, the district is scheduled to make improvements to a water-pumping system on its campus.

"Based on our water table, there's a very intricate pumping system that happens underneath our buildings," Thompson said.

In June, the district's campus will close for a couple of days, while work crews replace valves and other parts of the water-pumping system.

"Nobody sees this stuff," Thompson said. "But without it working, we would have issues with flooding and some other problems."