The Penta of Board of Education continued its tradition of hiring superintendents from the inside.
This morning the board voted to hire Penta Assistant Superintendent Ron Matter as the new superintendent.
He replaces Fred Susor, who is retiring at the end of the month after 31 years, 12 as superintendent, at
the school.
In the school’s 44-year history, only the first superintendent was not a Penta employee. Matter is the
fifth superintendent for the center which serves 16 school districts, including all those in Wood
County, spread over five counties. He’ll start on Aug. 1 in the position that pays $120,000 annually.

Matter joined the district four years ago as assistant superintendent. Previously he was superintendent
at Northwood.
When he took the position, Susor told him that he was considering retiring in a few years.
"This is just a great place to work," Matter said.
The vote was 7-2, with Mark Schoenlein, of Perrysburg, and Judith Sander, of North Point Educational
Service Center, voting no. Neither would comment on their vote after the meeting.
The job opening attracted 15 applicants including some from outside the state. The field was winnowed to
four, and then finally two candidates.
Judy Wells, the principal at Pickaway-Ross Career & Technology Center in Chillicothe was the
other finalist.
Board President Eric Myers said Matter’s knowledge of the career center and Northwest Ohio and his
relationship with other educators in the area were leading factors in his selection.
Matter said today he expected his greatest challenge will be grappling with school funding from the
state: "What’s going to happen with state funding and how does it play out with career technical
education?"
Beyond that, he said: "Locally we want to continue to offer the best career technical
education."
Matter hopes to strengthen ties with local school districts, and plans to make the rounds of local school
board meetings.
Matter said that Penta still needs to overcome some negative perceptions about the career center. The new
school, which opened in late summer in Perrysburg Township, helps but more important are the programs
offered.
Penta isn’t for everyone, he said, but there are more students who could benefit from its mix of
vocational and academic training.
At the state level, he hopes to impress on officials that "career technical education is a vital
part of workforce development in Ohio."
The school is planning to launch a new program in materials handling and logistics. That would fit as the
new CSX intermodal site in North Baltimore is developed. "We can be a very important player in
providing a workforce for that."
A 1980 graduate of Bowling Green State University, he started his career as a business teacher and
basketball coach in the Cincinnati area.
It was coaching, he said, that first got him interested in teaching. He taught and coached swimming as a
high school student.
He ended up coaching baseball, basketball and football over the years until becoming an administrator. He
also received master’s degree and certification in administration from the University of Dayton. He also
worked in the Pandora-Gilboa Local School District before coming to Northwood in 1991 first serving for
five years as principal of Lark Elementary, then high school principal and then from 1998 to 2005 as
superintendent.
He lives with his wife, Laurie, in Maumee. They have two adult children.