The Raider Review
Fall 2025 Edition
A message from Dr. Jarred Zapolnik, Superintendent of South Range Local Schools
“Stronger Together: Our Story Moves Forward”
Dear South Range families:
As the leaves turn and fall settles across our community, I want to take a moment to reflect on an incredible start to the 2025–2026 school year. It is hard to believe how quickly the first quarter has passed! Each new school year brings with it a sense of renewal—a fresh chapter to write together—and this year’s theme, “Stronger Together: Our Story Moves Forward,” reflects exactly that. Our district has never been defined by a single moment or challenge, but by the strength of its people and the shared commitment to our students.
I would like to thank each of you for your continued support, engagement, and dedication throughout the past year. Together, we have celebrated achievements across academics, arts, athletics, and service—all while embracing growth, collaboration, and excellence. For example, in the area of academics and on the 2025 School District report card, the South Range Local School district achieved its best achievement performance in five years, increasing the Performance Index rate from 96 to nearly 102 points! Truly, we have shown what it means to be the community centerpiece, building on excellence.
Celebrating a Fantastic Fall Season
This fall has been an incredible showcase of Raider pride and teamwork. Congratulations to all of our fall athletes, cheerleaders, flagline, and band members for representing our district with such dedication and spirit! From the energy of Friday night lights to the powerful performances on the field and stage, your hard work, perseverance, and school spirit have made this season unforgettable. A special thank you also goes out to our coaches, directors, advisors, and families whose support and encouragement help our students shine. Whether through athletics, music, or performance, our Raiders continue to demonstrate what it means to compete, create, and lead with excellence.
Looking Ahead: New Programs & Opportunities
Building on the momentum from last year, we are proud to announce that students have already enrolled in our new Building Trades course, a significant addition to our career pathways that prepares students for real-world success.
Additionally, our staff is implementing new K–6 Reading and Math curricula, including Amplify Desmos (K–2 and 5–6) and i-Ready Math (3–4). These evidence-based resources—selected through meaningful collaboration with teachers and staff—will provide personalized learning opportunities for both enrichment and intervention, ensuring every student receives the support they need to thrive.
We are also expanding enrichment offerings across the district, including:
Middle School:
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eSports
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International Food Club (8th grade only)
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Crochet Club (grades 5–12)
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Math 24 (5th grade only)
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(Potentially launching) Archery Club
Elementary School:
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Art Club
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Storybook Stretches
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Math 24 (grades 3–4)
These opportunities reflect our commitment to cultivating excellence while encouraging students to explore their interests and talents. I invite all families to explore these programs—evidence of our shared dedication to the Raider Way High Expectations goal!
Communication, Collaboration & Community
We remain committed to open, transparent communication. Through Second Cups of Coffee, face-to-face conversations, district-wide surveys, and weekly updates, we continue to expand opportunities for dialogue and connection. Our Raider Ambassadors continue serving as key communicators between the district and community, ensuring every voice is heard.
Safety & Resources
Safety and access to resources remain top priorities. This year, we’ve added 240 new Chromebooks and refined our Technology Fee Structure and Device Usage Model based on your feedback. We are also actively pursuing school safety grants to further enhance the security of our campuses.
Master Facilities Plan
Looking ahead, we continue to advance our Master Facilities Five-Year Plan, developed through community and staff input during the 2024–2025 school year. This plan outlines actionable steps for long-term sustainability, responsible resource management, and the future needs of our campus. We look forward to sharing progress updates throughout the year.
A Unified Mission: The Raider Way
Our district remains focused on the four key components of the Raider Way:
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High Expectations
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Communication & Collaboration
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Student Performance & Career-Technical & Workforce Development
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Safety & Resources
These pillars guide every decision we make and reflect our ongoing commitment to Getting Better Every Day (GBED).
In Closing
As we move deeper into the school year, I am inspired by the sense of pride and purpose that defines our district. Thank you for the countless ways you support our schools, our staff, and most importantly, our students. I am honored to serve as superintendent. Together, we continue to move our story forward—with unity, strength, and Raider pride.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jarred Zapolnik
Superintendent
South Range Local School District
📑 Keep Up to Date with All Board Policies 📑
South Range Schools works each month to revise, update, and adopt several NEOLA policies.
Community members are encouraged to familiarize themselves with these policies, as they play a critical role in guiding the district's operations and decision-making. All board policies are available for review on our website at BoardDocs.
Where the Money Comes From
How the Money is Spent
The latest and greatest from our district
Our Raiders are exploring career pathways, students are achieving excellence, and our community continues to support The Raider Way.
At September's Board of Education meeting, we proudly presented the SR students who achieved perfect OST scores last spring. Please join us in celebrating these students. Keep shining Raiders with your exemplary performance!
Grade 3: Elias Campbell (ELA), Kaelina Gorcheff (Math), Grayson Leffler (Math), Sylvia Maillis (Math), Taryn McPhee (Math), Bethany Slagle (Math), Christopher Turner (Math), Brody Wilson (Math)
Grade 4: Elliot Hull (ELA), Evelyn Wells (ELA), Michael Dawson (Math), Wyatt Montgomery (Math), Kavi Patel (Math), Kavya Patel (Math), Brady Ridge (Math), Daniel Sofranko (Math), Ava Usis (Math), Evelyn Wells (Math)
Grade 5: Ainsley Campbell (Math & Science), James Barber (Science)
Grade 6: Dallas Dispenza (Math)
Grade 7: Hannah Strupkus (ELA)
Grade 8: Ryan Nicholson (Algebra I), Weston Ramps (Math), Lukas Wenger (Math)
Grade 10: Adalyn Sell (ELA II), Cody Ewert (American Government)
There is no better way to begin our school year than with the Ohio Department of Education's designation of South Range Local School as "Exceeding State Standards".
Our glowing state report card is a direct result of our students, teachers, and families working together to achieve "The Raider Way" every day. We could not achieve these results without the support, connection, and dedication of our families working together with our district.
Raider Nation, when we work together, we win together! Let's keep winning together with our focus on student achievement, our commitment to get better every day, and our support of each other. Go Raiders!
Our district's achievement were even recognized by the news! See how our district was featured in these news stories:
📰: Valley schools react to 2024-2025 report card scores - WFMJ.com
📰: Valley schools get graded | News, Sports, Jobs - The Vindicator
Welcome Back: An Update from Mr. Matos, SRES Principal
I would like to welcome everyone back to South Range Elementary and thank our school community for another great start to the school year. This is an exciting time for our school as we are implementing new programs and utilizing new resources in all of our classrooms. With your continued support and encouragement, we will provide a positive environment that will enhance the lives of our children. I hope we may all continue to work together to achieve maximum success for our students. Welcome back and have a great 2025-2026 school year!
Curriculum and Intervention
Over the past two years, our elementary school has worked with our ESCEO county consultants to research and explore various language arts and math resources. Our goal was to have these new materials in place for the start of the 25-26 school year. This process took time since our students range in age from 5-10 years old and have different needs as they move up in years from kindergarten to fourth grade. This year, our kindergarten classes are implementing "Wit & Wisdom" as their core reading program while continuing to utilize "Really Great Reading" for their language arts classes. For language arts in first through fourth grade, all of our classes continue to use the "Wonders" reading program. This year for math, our kindergarten through second grade classes are implementing Amplify Desmos, while in grades three and four, our classes are using "iReady". As our staff learns these new programs, they are working and planning together throughout the week and during professional development sessions.
To provide intervention, we are very happy to announce that our district qualified to retain the Title I program this year! I would like to welcome back Ms. Schiavi and Mrs. Taylor. I'd also like to welcome Mrs. Yurcich as one of our Title I interventionists. They will be providing intervention in reading to grades K-2 and intervention in reading and math to grades three and four. Our Title I program utilizes a variety of intervention programs such as UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute), Really Great Reading, Wonders interventions and IXL.
Our staff is in year two of utilizing the assessment, intervention and benchmarking program called "MAP". MAP provides our teachers and parents with detailed information about how your child is performing and growing in the areas of reading and/or math. The MAP assessments can provide us with data for those students in need of intervention, as well as data on our highest achieving students. Currently, we have completed our baseline assessments with our students this fall. In January, we will complete our next round of assessments to see how our students have grown. As our staff becomes more familiar with all of the detailed reports MAP provides, we will be able to share those reports with you. Also, Mrs. Maynard, our school counselor, has partnered with one of our parents, Mrs. Taylor, to create the EMC or Every Moment Counts. The EMC consists of parent volunteers who have signed up to work with various groups of students throughout the week on reading and math skills.
PTO
The elementary PTO is an integral part of many of the events that take place to support our students and staff. From the beginning of the year, the PTO welcomes our students back to school with a giant "Welcome Back" sign at the front of the building where parents, students and staff can take pictures. The main role of the PTO is to provide various types of support to the students, staff and administration for our many classroom and curricular needs. We are extremely fortunate that our elementary school has an outstanding, supportive PTO.
The PTO has been busy organizing the Harvest Day classroom parties, preparing for our 3rd grade Veterans Day program and looking ahead to our holiday celebrations in December with our Holiday Sing programs in kindergarten and 2nd grade and our classroom parties before winter break.
The annual PTO Auction took place on Saturday, November 8th, 2025 at the Lake Club. The auction is the PTO’s largest fundraiser of the year and all proceeds from the auction go directly to our students, staff and classroom needs.
Student Enrichment
The PTO Enrichment Committee looks for new and exciting ways to enrich the education of our students. Over the past several school years, the enrichment committee organized a field trip to OH WOW in Youngstown for all of our students. They also organized a hands-on, educational field trip for our students to Beech Creek Gardens and Nature Preserve in Alliance. For the 24-25 school year, the enrichment committee had a theme to provide local opportunities that align with the standards that are also unique to Ohio. To achieve this, our students attended the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and the YSU Baseball School Day Game with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. Last year was the first year for JA in a Day with Junior Achievement of Eastern Ohio at South Range Elementary. This was such a great success that JA in a Day will be back this November. We also will have a visit from the Cleveland Cavs in January for a pep assembly that will include the elementary and middle school students.
School Counselor
Our elementary school counselor, Cindy Maynard, has been meeting with students and organizing our new student intervention program with our parent volunteers called Every Moment Counts (EMC) this fall. Mrs. Maynard also organized one of the biggest events that takes place in October in the elementary school, “Healthy Habits Week.” This is a week that Mrs. Maynard, along with other teachers, community members and our PTO organize together that focuses on teaching our students about the importance of living a healthy life. Each day, there is a different school-wide healthy habit theme where students and staff dress the same and celebrate healthy living. Mrs. Maynard and various health officials will meet with all of our students to teach about different aspects of our health and how they can work to make healthy choices. The week ends with our final activity, our Harvest Day classroom parties from our PTO.
Happy November: An Update from Mrs. Ware, SRMS Principal
It's amazing how quickly the school year is going! Students have successfully completed the first nine weeks and have much to celebrate. As we head into November, I am continually grateful for the South Range community. This year we will continue celebrating our students, families, and community.
To kick off our school year, our middle school teachers have been extending learning into nature and the outdoors as the weather allows. As we move into this season of gratitude, thank you for all you do to support our students and our school. Together, we continue to show The Raider Way: Respect. Responsibility. Resilience.
5th Grade Band Starts Playing!
Our fifth graders started playing their instruments in October! They're busy learning how to read music and play notes on their chosen instruments. We look forward to them participating in full band soon!
Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who donated their time and talents to provide small group instruction to our students.
6th Grade's Camp Frederick Trip
The Grade 6 Team and students enjoyed an amazing day at Camp Frederick in October. The students worked in groups, overcoming obstacles, searching for water animals, using GPS receivers to find Pez dispensers, and journeyed through the woods on a nature scavenger hunt. It was a beautiful day for all to enjoy learning about each other and themselves.
7th Grade's Inspiration Wall
Seventh grade students started the year supporting each other. Each student shared an inspirational quote for a wall display. Raiders supporting each other is a big part of The Raider Way!
8th Grade's Building Trades Project
We begin introducing our students to Building Trades as early as 8th grade. Check out the birdhouses our 8th grade building trades students built.
A Great Start to the Year: An Update from Mr. Szolek, SRHS Principal
The high school is off to a fantastic start to the 2025-2026 school year. This smooth start is a reflection of the support from, and collaboration with, the South Range community, high school staff members and our wonderful students. I am happy to share some highlights from our strong start to the 25-26 school year.
New Programs
A highlight of the 2025-26 school year is the implementation of the carpentry and building trades program. This exciting new pathway for career-focused students has quickly moved from planning to action, benefiting immediately from significant community support. Students enrolled in the building trades classroom, guided by Mr. Giesy’s commitment to creating workforce-ready graduates, received a generous donation of new, valuable toolboxes, ensuring they have the essential equipment for practical, hands-on instruction right away. This investment signals the district's strong commitment to providing high-quality, relevant skilled trades education, setting the stage for a productive and engaging year focused on both traditional academics and innovative career-technical opportunities.
Freshman Focus is also new to our course offerings this school year. We realize the transition from middle school to high school can sometimes be overwhelming for our 9th-grade students. In an attempt to ease this transition, Freshman Focus is a required class. Four of our teachers have at least one section of Freshman Focus as part of their respective teaching schedule. In this class, students are familiarized with the high school’s policies and procedures, taught study skills, made aware of expected behaviors and provided with opportunities to complete work. A SEL (social-emotional learning) component is also embedded in the Freshman Focus classes weekly instruction.
Moving forward, we will look to add additional opportunities in an effort to meet the needs of our students!
Focus Fridays
The high school is continuing with “Focus Fridays” this year, the first of which was held on October 24th. In collaboration with Youngstown State University’s Tressel Institute for Leadership and Teamwork, our students participate in activities designed to promote team-building, cooperation and communication. We will be participating in additional Focus Fridays throughout this school year, one each quarter, while also doing a “Day of Service” in Mid-December.
Senior Impact
Eleven of our staff members (teachers and coaches) were presented with t-shirts in appreciation of the positive impact that they have had on our senior football players and cheerleaders. Those staff members receiving shirts attended senior night and wore the shirt given to them by the respective student-athlete. Those teachers and coaches recognized by our seniors are: Mr. Allegretto, Mrs. Amendola, Mr. Giesy, Mr. Foster, Mrs. Shaffer, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Lindstrom, Mr. Giordano, Mrs. Fishel, Mrs. Fullerton and Mr. Leach.
Skilled Trades Expo
Nearly 60 of our students took part in the 6th Annual Mahoning Valley Skilled Trades Expo at the Canfield Fairgrounds in mid-September. This interactive expo, featuring hands-on activities for the participants, exposed students to the multiple skilled construction trades pathways for the Skilled Construction Trades. Students were able to “learn by doing” and speak to individuals working in the many trades represented - masonry, plumbing, HVAC, roofing, carpentry, heavy machinery and many more!
Pack the Valley
Mrs. Fishel and our National Honor Society students volunteered at the United Way’s annual Pack the Valley campaign. The event took place on October 28th where more than 400 volunteers, including South Range High School’s NHS members, came together all united by one goal: to help our neighbors in need. Thanks to their hard work, an astounding 133,520 shelf-stable meals were packed in just one day!
These meals are now on their way through Gleaners Food Bank, MYCAP, Heartreach Ministries and United Way, reaching local families and older adults across the Mahoning Valley who need them most.
Honors Choir Performance
On Friday, October 24th, six of our choir students participated in the District-5 Honors Choir, comprised of the best singers from Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties. Congratulations to our representatives:
Solena DeJesus
Addie Sell
Olivia Leskey
Harper Bailey
Daniel Landis
Jack Yurcich
SR is happy to announce our district launch of the StopFinder app! The StopFinder app is another key communication improvement our district is implementing. The app is a secure method for our transportation department to share important transportation updates and announcements in real time.
Fliers with enrollment instructions came home with your student on the following dates:
✅Elementary students: Fliers went out on Friday, October 17
✅Middle School students: Fliers went out on Friday, October 24
✅High School students: Fliers went out on October 31
Please email Mrs. Hammond with questions at bhammond@southrange.org.
At the beginning of this year the cafeteria partnered with a few classrooms and started a raised bed project. The items that were planted were radishes, lettuce, kale, and arugula. The classrooms have been rotating watering the raised beds and they are doing great! Next time you are at the school check out the raised beds located near the elementary side of the district.
