Editor’s Note: At 6 p.m. Friday, as the Record-Eagle was preparing to publish this story, the Perryman family moved into one of the 11 family suites at the Goodwill Inn.
Judi Zanetti – a teacher turned school board member turned education champion –officially retired on Friday after serving the past eight years as executive director of the Public Education Foundation of Marion County.
Zanetti, 53, retired to spend time with her husband, Gene, a retired optometrist. Zanetti hands over the reins to 16-year veteran foundation employee Meghan Magamoll.
The foundation raises money to support supplemental education programs that benefit school district students and teachers.
Zanetti, the foundation’s executive officer since 2012, was a school board member from 2004-12. Between 1990 and 2004, Zanetti spent seven years as a kindergarten teacher in the district.
As a board member, Zanetti teamed up with then-Osceola Middle School teacher David Steffey, who is now a dean of discipline at Oakcrest Elementary, in 2009 to create the Tools 4 Teaching school supply store with unused 2008 campaign funds.