Jason Jurey graduated from Wadsworth High School and served as a Science teacher at the school for 17 years. His resignation was announced on August 13, 2024, less than a week before the start of the new school year. Photo courtesy of the Whisperer Yearbook.

Jason Jurey has resigned as science teacher at Wadsworth High School and accepted a new position at CropKing Incorporated as the Director of Education.

“I can say that it was a very difficult decision to walk away from a 17-year career in a community that I love with students that I love but there were enough positives for this new job and enough negatives from my teaching job that it was an easy choice for me honestly at the end of the day,” Jurey said.

Though Jurey loved his time spent teaching at Wadsworth High School, he said he began to see a problem in the ways education was being taught not only in Wadsworth City Schools but many other schools around the United States.

“Some of the things that I’ve noticed, and I’m not sure that it’s even a Wadsworth problem, it’s just a problem with education in general since [the] COVID[-19 pandemic]. I feel like a lot of the policies that we’ve seen come down from the state level, even in some cases the district level, have hampered educators’ abilities to do what they do best, which is educate students,” Jurey said. “We became too driven by policy and kind of one-off ideas that are meant to be beneficial to a portion of the population but not necessarily all students and that created a lot of difficulties when designing coursework. It just didn’t create continuity in my mind with what I wanted to do as a teacher and what I was able to do versus what the state and the district were telling me I had to do.” 

Jurey believes that with these problems in the education system comes the possibility of many other highly experienced teachers leaving their teaching jobs as well.

“You’ve started to see [a] kind of an exodus of teachers from education in recent times,” Jurey said. “It’s becoming very hard in many places in the country to fill empty teacher roles. The perks and the benefits that used to exist for teachers are slowly kind of eroding away so I think you’re gonna see more of an exodus of high-quality and seasoned veteran teachers leaving the profession for better things and that’s, I guess, where I’m at.”

Despite multiple conversations with Superintendent Andrew Hill, Assistant Superintendent Steve Moore, and various principles, Jurey believes that nothing was able to change to keep him happy in education and teaching at Wadsworth High School.

“I had conversations with Mr. Moore and Dr. Hill and then also some of the assistant principals that I have taught under for a long time and while I believe their intentions were good, a lot of what would’ve needed to change for me to remain happy in education they just probably weren’t able to provide,” Jurey said. “So I don’t blame anyone for the failures that have occurred in education, they just didn’t probably have the tools to be able to do what was needed to fix the problems.”

With those reasons in mind, along with the freedom that his new position would offer, he accepted the Director of Education position at CropKing Inc. on Aug. 13. 

“The freedom that I’m gonna have to use my creativity to make something my own. While there is an opportunity for creativity in formal classroom education, you are so boxed in by policies and requirements by the state that you can’t really grow something in all directions,”  Jurey said. “You have to kinda keep it confined to what you’re asked to do whereas this is truly a blank canvas. I finally get to paint my picture outside of the confines of a frame and I think it’s gonna give me the freedom to make a larger impact in what I really love, which is talking about and caring about the environment.”

Jurey believes that with this new position, he has the creative freedom and trust to make the position whatever he wants it to be.

CropKing Inc. is a company that focuses on introducing schools to hydroponics and in some cases assisting them with their hydroponic garden within their school.

Hydroponics means growing plants without soil by replacing it with nutrient-dense water.

“Our ‘big picture’ is to help feed those in areas where fresh food is hard to come by, reduce soil erosion and water overuse, and slow the introduction of chemical fertilizers into our waterways and ecosystems,” Jurey said. “We provide fresh produce to food banks and help schools create food programs to help supplement and maintain a healthy diet of students in their district as well.”

Jurey has been a consultant with CropKing Inc. since October of last year and his new job will be an extension of that role. 

“My day is gonna look very different from my school day some days it’s gonna be actually in the office maybe writing curriculum and reaching out to districts and asking if they’re interested in hearing about hydroponics. Other days it will be things like trade shows and education shows in places like Columbus and Cincinnati and places all over Ohio.”

As Jurey leaves and reflects on his time spent at Wadsworth High School he is grateful for his career within the district and is saddened that he is unable to say goodbye to many of his students.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to teach for 17 years at this amazing district,” Jurey said. “I wish the timing could’ve been better, I wish I could’ve known about this at the end of the school year and exited in a more I don’t know inclusive way. I feel like I’m not getting to say goodbye to people I care about, like students, and I know it’s gonna be a shock to a lot of kids when they get back next week that I’m no longer here. I’m disappointed that that’s the way it’s gonna have to go.”

Jurey will miss his students and staff deeply and hopes that one day the new staff can bring back the spark he once felt at Wadsworth High School.

“I’ve made so many great friends on the staff, I’ve had so many amazing kids that have become in some cases personal friends,” Jurey said. “I love just watching the kids thrive and go off to college and make something of themselves. I remember how fun the old high school was as a staff. I think the energy was different [and] I think that was why I got into education, the way we used to teach back at the old high school, and ever since we’ve transferred to this new building I think that spark has been lost by a lot of the staff and I miss that and I hope somewhere down the road the new staff recaptures that spark because it doesn’t feel like the Wadsworth I started at anymore.”

Jurey hopes that as he closes this chapter to open a new one, the students know that even though change can be hard, many positives come right along with it and he will always be a Wadsworth Grizzly in his heart.

“There are so many positives that can come from change so I would just encourage kids to follow their heart and do what is gonna make you happy in life and I hope they know I will always be a Grizzly, always in my heart, even if I’m not in those walls I’m still there and I will miss everyone greatly,” Jurey said.

Wadsworth science teacher Bree McNeill will be taking over as the Advanced Placement Environmental Science teacher in the absence of Jurey. Jurey was the sole teacher of the course at Wadsworth High School before his resignation.

“When I moved to Wadsworth High School, 5 years ago, Mr. Jurey had a thriving APES [Advanced Placement Environmental Science] program up and running,” McNeill said. “He did an amazing job with the program, so I didn’t think I would ever get this opportunity. We are so sad to see Mr. Jurey go, but I am very excited to be taking over the program. Mr. Jurey set a high bar and I hope to be able to continue to meet the standard he has set.”