As a Perrysburg resident most of my life, Perrysburg will always be home to me.  You hear from so many others in our nearby suburbs how “lucky we are to have such a great school system” so you just believe it until you actually experience or start researching this concept yourself.  I went to Perrysburg schools K-freshman year and struggled so badly with the bulling and peer pressure up until freshman year that I was blessed enough to finish my high school career at a Toledo private school.  Going from Perrysburg to a private school I was definitely behind when it came to academics.  Finished my high school with a much higher education and a class with a higher percentage of students completing higher education.

Fast forward many years later where I begin to send my children to Perrysburg schools. Never having been on the parent side before I wasn’t sure what to expect.  With a school system with such a high tax rate it would always surprise me every year when the school supply list would be over $100 worth of materials. That did not even include backpack or personal items purchased for my student.  The principals that have gone through my kids’ elementary schools never seem to be warm or welcoming.  Volunteered with the Parents club and always given the cold shoulder and felt like an outsider. Would volunteer to do things and they would have someone else do them.  Started to feel like a close resemblance to my school years.

Fast forward a few years later and enter- COVID.  Trying to get answers from faculty, staff or administration about quarantining, masking or hospitalizations of students was incredibly difficult and met so many “I don’t knows”.  No one had any answers and would do whatever they could to just pass you off to someone else without trying to find the answers I was looking for regarding my children.  Why is one type of mask okay in one building but not in another?  Why is my child quarantining for so long without being sick?  How many students in the whole body have been hospitalized?  When I asked about receiving money from the state for implementing specific mandates one principal told me “we have not received money for this but if the state is offering any money we will do whatever it takes to get it.”  Where I responded “hopefully not if it would involve a risk or unethical practices with our children.”

My eyes really became opened when we started attending school board meetings in the summer of 2021.  The disrespect the board showed to the parents was unbelievable. All concerns and questions brought by parents fall on deaf ears. This was 90% of the parents that showed up to these meetings.  You get 2 minutes to state your points and concerns and the board says your time is up and it is done.  They don’t consider the statements or ideas that were brought to them.  Even watching the board coordinate an attack that involved the media to one parent which is anything but “the jacket way”. 

My children RARELY ever received homework. It seems like school time is more focused on them being social (especially my middle school child) then it is on actual academics.  We have had teachers even state how “grateful they are that we share our child with them”.  Excuse me but this is not your child. Figuring out that the schools were data mining on our children and passing out surveys that asked them inappropriate questions that involved concepts that my child doesn’t even understand or conceptualize was very disturbing.  Not giving parents notice or allowing us to see the material on the surveys.  Also if your student is K-2 the teacher actually takes the survey as a proxy of the student which is also crazy to think about. How and why does that work? This person doesn’t know MY CHILD like that. 

At the end of the day I am watching my children, mainly my oldest, walk toward the same path of what I experienced as a Perrysburg student. Being judged based on the labels we wear.  Being bullied and harassed about sexual concepts before even going fully through puberty.  Having teachers play favorites and essentially not educating at a potential they could be. School board overspending and consistently requiring more money from parents when living in a costly school district as is.  With all this in mind we have decided to switch our children’s schools to somewhere that is way more culturally diverse. instead of just talking about it, and puts a heavy focus on academics and education with strong core curriculum.

My prayer is that Perrysburg someday will get it together and act more responsibly with financials, will listen to and recognize the concerns of tax payers and parents and put a stop to the cliché stereotypical high school popularity contest that seems to reek the hallways of this school system.