Perry High School (Gilbert, Arizona)

County Library

When Hamilton High School and Basha High School were built, the city of Chandler incorporated branch libraries into those sites. Perry is within Gilbert town limits, and so the Chandler Unified School District worked to incorporate a Maricopa County Library District branch into the site. The Perry Branch Library opened in June 2007. It was the first public library located in a high school in Gilbert and the first public library in the nation to drop the Dewey Decimal System, opting instead for a bookstore-like system that places non-fiction books into categories based on subject. This change brought national attention to the library and provoked debate about the effectiveness of the Dewey Decimal System. The library also has arts and crafts projects on a regular basis.

The county library is the second to be integrated inside a high school: Boulder Creek High School in Anthem features a Maricopa County regional library.

Fine Arts Department

Perry has a fine arts department headed by department chair Sharon Biemond. Biemond is the teacher of all sculpture classes. In the 2008-2009 school year as well as the 2009-2010 school year Perry's sculpture students competed with those at Basha High School in a loose competition called "Pumas on Parade" ("Bear Brigade" at Basha)where students construct "life sized" paper-mâché representations of their mascots and decorate them to fit a chosen theme. The rules have been rudimentary for both seasons in that the school who makes the "best looking" sculptures wins. At the end of the assignment the teachers from both schools exchange emails containing photos of all entries.

Other sculpture assignments have included packing tape sculptures inspired by the work of Mark Jenkins, Works inspired by Henry Moore, traditional ceramic sculptures, and many more. Perry has also drawn attention in two dimensional mediums with students winning district and even congressional awards for their work.

Also, the Perry High School Theater program, headed by Shauna Marquis, has made the top 10 drama departments in Arizona. In the fall of 2014, the department was invited to perform their fall musical, The Addams Family, at the Arizona Thespians State Conference, where they were also awarded for other achievements. In 2015, their one-act, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, was chosen as Arizona's chapter select at the International Thespian Festival. Additionally, they have been named A.I.A state champions of the Central Region for five consecutive years as of 2017. Perry High also has a choir who in 2011 sang in Carnegie Hall in New York City. Perry also represented the school by going to Disney World.

The Perry High School marching band, the Puma Regiment, has also acquired bragging rights to being the best marching band in the Chandler Unified School District with the fourth best Colorguard program in all of Arizona as of 2016. The season of 2016 proved them to be 13th overall in the state(out of 83 state-qualified bands) and are competitors with the largest marching bands in Arizona within Division III, which are usually compromised of 150-200+ elite musicians. Three Perry students graduating from the season of 2016 have been selected to be in the prestigious All-American Marching Band sponsored by the US ARMY; only 10 musicians admitted from Arizona and 125 nationwide. There have been several Perry students in the past that have been selected and actively participate in this elite band after graduating from Perry High School for seasons back-to-back. The whole Perry Band program is managed by Brandon Kiesgen, Director of Bands, and Benjamin Sampayan, Associate Director of Bands. The official Perry Bands website is http://www.perrybands.com/ , mainly used by students and parents to check for occasional updates.