A Jack of Many Trades

PROFILE

Phillip Jason “PJ” Caposey holds down quite an array of jobs. He’s a superintendent, consultant and coach, motivational speaker and frequent book author. Everyone who works with him knows him as a leader and a mentor.

Caposey, now completing his 10th year leading Meridian Community Unit School District 223 in Stillman Valley, Ill., was a finalist for the 2023 National Superintendent of the Year Award. “[W]hat is most important is that I’m developing leaders and creating a sustainable culture for them to operate outside of me,” he says, hoping that culture trickles down to students.

His professional colleagues see that happening.

“He’s invested heavily in [all his administrators] developing their ability to help other people grow,” says Tom Mahoney, superintendent of the Oregon Community Unit School District 220 in Oregon, Ill. “It’s been pretty remarkable to watch.”

John W. Smith, Meridian’s school board president, says of Caposey: “He has a mentoring attitude and nature to how he works with his leadership team. He engages frequently, he engages honestly.”

Growing up, Caposey says school was more of a social experience for him. “I was very fortunate in the fact that I’m smart, so I didn’t try very hard, but I got good grades. I was really good at the game of school.”

But being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and homebound in 11th grade, he says, made him realize “the role teachers play for people who don’t naturally get good grades.” This experience is what first motivated him to enter the education field. (During his time as a superintendent, Caposey later fought skin and thyroid cancer.) Watching his own kids go through school with four very different perspectives also helped Caposey understand the learning experience through multiple lenses.

Caposey recalls when he was an assistant principal and his principal told him he was ready for leadership of his own building. “[T]hat truly changed the trajectory in my career, because he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Caposey says. He adds that school leaders often tell kids they have so much potential, “but do we talk to 40-year-olds that way?”

In Meridian, Caposey aims to give students as many growth opportunities as possible. “What keeps me up at night is that geography dictates access,” he says. The rural 1,500-student district has set its sights on getting all students reading by the end of 3rd grade and on-grade in math by the end of 5th grade so all those in grades 6 through 8 can access algebra before high school.

Today, more than a third of Meridian high school graduates leave with at least a full semester of college credits. Caposey’s dream goal would be for students to graduate with an associate degree.

Smith, the board president, says the mission is “world-class results with hometown values.”

In this rural setting in northwestern Illinois, that means school districts often collaborate by sharing resources, transportation information and any number of services to lower costs. Fellow superintendent Mahoney points to Caposey’s major contributions in his role helping colleagues.

“That’s an ongoing theme I see of him, giving of himself so freely so others can get better,” Mahoney adds. “He excels beyond his talent because he’s such a hard worker and is so committed.”

As for his own endeavors, Caposey says in a dream world he would have 40 clients and consult with them on improving their schools full-time. But he adds, “The actual work is still the most exciting to me.”