Photo by Ryan Ottney | Daily Times

Carl McCrory returns to southern Ohio as the new Valley School Superintendent. McCrory previously was superintendent at Oak Hill and left to spend one-year as superintendent in a Minnesota school district.

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RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY

PDT Staff Writer

Students at Valley School were greeted back to school on Monday by the district’s new superintendent, Carl McCrory.

McCrory comes to the district after former Valley Superintendent J. Paul White resigned last year. The school board initially hired former Washington-Nile Superintendent Patricia Ciraso as interim superintendent until a permanent superintendent could be found, and received 16 applicants for the job.

Once the superintendent at Oak Hill Union Local Schools, in Oak Hill, McCrory also spent six years as principal at Coventry Local Schools in Akron, and Fairfield Local Schools in Leesburg, and most previously was superintendent of Community Christian Schools in Willmar, Minn. He didn’t stay in Minnesota very long, saying that he and his family all missed southern Ohio.

“Valley’s reputation is incredible, and I wanted to be a part of that,” he said.

McCrory was interviewed by the Valley School Board in March and hired in April. He started working alongside Ciraso in June, and Monday was his first day of classes.

He said his entire family is excited to come back to southern Ohio.

“I came home and put four Valley shirts on the couch and we went and got the kids, and when the kids saw the shirts on the couch a couple of them cried. They were ecstatic, and that said volumes to my wife and me,” McCrory said.

Members from his local church even helped the McCrory family move back from Minnesota.

Now that the school year has started, McCrory said he’s looking forward to being an Indian and helping to improve the district’s score on their state report card.

“There’s always the anticipation and stress of getting everything done. Valley has had some financial restraints. We have not filled some positions and we’ve laid some people off in the past, and we’re trying to make sure we adjust. But we have limited resources and we’re trying to make sure we’re good stewards of those resources without hurting the quality of education,” he said.

The school also is beginning a new archery program for its physical education curriculum.

“Archery in the schools is something that’s catching on,” McCrory said. “Darren Crabtree went to training, so he’s a certified trainer. It teaches competition archery. There’s a couple hundred (programs) in the state of Ohio, but I think the biggest thing for kids is that it’s just another skill.”

During the first year, the program will only be offered for two weeks. After that, schools can schedule competition meets with other districts. McCrory said he wasn’t sure they’d be ready for that this year, but maybe soon.

Ryan Scott Ottney can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.