Girard City Schools
Dear Girard Community,
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It gives me great pleasure to present our annual newsletter to you. In this edition, we will highlight our students and the successes they had this year.
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On May 27, 2018 we held the 135th commencement of the Girard City Schools. We graduated one hundred forty-three students with seven of those being named valedictorian. We congratulate our graduates as we send them off to take on the new challenges in the next chapter of their lives.
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Girard continues to be successful because of our parents and families that make up our community. It all starts right here. Parents set the tone and goals with their children and then we come along to enhance the growth of each child preparing for each one of them to be successful and reaching every personal goal they set. Our staff is committed to help each student succeed and reach their goals. I truly believe our staff is the best around. Also, our administrative staff takes a backseat to no one. Dr. Gratz at Prospect Elementary has been with us now for more than nine years. Mr. Greg Bonamase heads up Girard Intermediate and has been at Girard for eight years. At the Junior High School, Mrs. Jennifer Santangelo has completed her fifth year as principal. Mr. William Christofil has been the assistant high school principal for six years. Our high school principal, Mr. William Ryser, has been with us for eleven years. We are thankful for our administrators’ hard work and dedication to our students and district. We also have Mrs. Dianne Kosco as our Special Education Director who has been serving our district for the past six years. Nick Cochran, our Athletic and Activities Director has been performing these duties for six years as well. The continuity of our administrative team is what propels Girard’s success.
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Safety is at the forefront of all school districts. Here at Girard, we continually have those discussions about safety, not only within our administrative staff or crisis teams, but with local police as well. We have made positive changes in our security. We have doubled our resource officers at the high school and have also stationed a resource officer at the Girard Intermediate building. We have committed one of our school psychologist fully to the needs of our junior and senior high students as another safety measure to ensure that we are meeting the emotional needs of our students whom we value. We will continue to make adjustments in the future as we deem necessary.
We have committed personnel, counselors, psychologists, and administrators to our students’ welfare. In staying with this commitment, we have changed one of our counselor positions at the high school to a new position called, Director of Pupil Personnel. Mrs. Kelley Warga will be the new director and she will be totally dedicated to students every day. She will be guiding students by working on career choices, career paths, ACT testing, scholarships, scheduling, etc. We have also changed the focus junior high counselor from grades 7-8 to grades 7-9. This is to ensure that all 8th grade students have counselors dedicated to their career path going into high school so they will have a successful experiences and graduate prepared for the career they choose.
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No school system is complete without its Board of Education. Girard’s Board of Education is led by its President, Mr. Mark Zuppo. Mr. Zuppo has been a board member for eleven years and serves the district in many capacities. Vice-President, Mr. Peter Cardiero, is serving his sixth year on the board. Mrs. Diane Alejars has been with the board for twenty-one years. Newcomers for the Board of Education are Sue Ellen Davis and Karen Thomas. Our board takes great pride in serving its students and its community. This board is very dedicated to the success of Girard City Schools in all areas.
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As we continually evaluates what we do and how we do it here at Girard, it gives me great pleasure to make our courses meaningful and also present opportunities well past high school. In the past, we have added many courses and now we have the privilege to offer our students, a Drones class. Drones are used in many areas such as Cinematography and police work. This class will be offered this fall and co-taught by Mr. Jamie Williams and Mr. Ashraf Hadi.
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In closing, a very special thank you to all of our business partners who offer their endless support year after year. We truly appreciate all you do for Girard Schools. We will continually do our best to educate, love, encourage, and support all of our students. Please do not hesitate to contact our principals or myself for any concern or needs that arise.
Have a great 2018-2019 school year.
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Sincerely,
David Cappuzzello
Superintendent