After 40 years in education and nine with North Canton City Schools (NCCS), Mr. Jeff Wendorf, spends his final weeks as Superintendent with NCCS before he goes into retirement. From Lake Local Schools to the University of Mount Union, Mr. Wendorf has gone from teaching to coaching and ending his career in administration.

Throughout his career, Wendorf has accomplished a countless number of things. One of his most proud achievements is “helping people grow in their career from teachers and principals to students.”

“I was an assistant principal for a long time, and I dealt with that role, mostly students with discipline choices, I call them, and watching them grow,” Wendorf said. “And the whole key is to try to get them to make better decisions in the future.”

Between administration and the staff members, Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Dave Pilati, believes that Mr. Wendorf “helped build a very collaborative culture.”

“One of his greatest attributes is that he approaches his job from the perspective of ‘What can I do to help others do their job to the best of their abilities,’” he said.

Since 2016, when Mr. Wendorf first stepped in as NCCS superintendent, the administrators developed a system that assists in continuing to ensure that all kids are successful and if needed, are provided with the help they need. He “helped to establish a culture of continuous improvement” so that even after he retires, everyone will continue to believe that we can always get better.

“Mr. Wendorf always approached issues and made decisions guided by the philosophy that we must always do what’s best for students and what’s best for the overall district,” Pilati said.

Mr. Pilati believes that even after Wendorf’s retirement, the programs he started will continue to benefit the district. One being a strategic planning process that resulted in the district’s mission, vision and values.

“While the mission and vision changed slightly about four years into his tenure as superintendent, the

district values of respect, integrity, grit, and relationships have remained the same,” he said. “Those values are now ingrained in our district and hopefully will remain at the heart of what we do for years to come.”

With anyone who has worked with Mr. Wendorf throughout his career knows that he has positively impacted them either as a person, educator or leader. Mr. Pilati has been in this field of work for 33 years and he states that having the opportunity to work with Mr. Wendorf on the three new buildings has been the highlight of his career.

“That was something I had not had the opportunity to do before, and I was fortunate to be part of something that provided something so amazing for the North Canton community,” he said.

After working in one field of work for a person’s entire career, there’s definitely things that have made their career special and have shaped themselves personally and professionally.

Knowing that we’re probably never alone in our adventures and don’t have to be alone in our adventures and teamwork, and those kinds of things certainly make things more tolerable and most of the time more successful,” Wendorf said.

With this, Mr. Pilati believes that he could learn from Mr. Wendorf about management and leadership.

“I have learned the importance of allowing people in positions of leadership to have the freedom to lead and not micromanaging them,” Pilati said. “That was something that Mr. Wendorf was very good at it.”

When retiring, a retiree’s goal is to leave behind a legacy and create a positive impact that will not fade. That’s exactly what Mr. Wendorf would like to happen once he takes his final steps as NCCS superintendent on July 1, 2025.

“[I hope] that people know that they can rely on each other as a team and help each other to be successful,” he said. “It’s a team effort. We worked not only in the district with our team, our leadership team, and our teachers and our kids, but also with the community, the city of North Canton and our trustees and in the township. But yeah, we work as a team to get great results for our kids and our community.”

Along with leaving behind a legacy of teamwork, “leading the district in the process of building new modern 21st century school facilities for all students” is what Pilati believes will be left behind.

Mr. Wendorf will also continue to leave behind many other legacies on not only NCCS, but also the community. Throughout his career, he gave everything to making positive impacts on people, one person at a time.

“Even when he was dealing with some health issues, he continued to come to work every day and put the needs of the school district ahead of his own,” Pilati said. “Most other people would not have shown the level of dedication that he displayed.”

Not only will NCCS miss Mr. Wendorf, but he also says he will miss the “smiles and lots of people.”

After working with Mr. Wendorf for a large amount of time, Mr. Pilati says he will “mostly miss his friendship on a daily basis.”

Although Mr. Pilati will miss their daily friendship, he wishes the best for Wendorf as he goes into retirement. With Mr. Wendorf’s time as superintendent coming to a close, Mr. Pilati offers his last few words of advice.

“Congratulations,” Pilati said. “Enjoy life by doing things that you have always wanted to do but did not have the time to do them in the past while you were working as superintendent.”