Five people are running for four open seats on Pleasant Valley School Board. Incumbents are Laura Jecker and Donna Yozwiak. Newcomers are Diane M. Serfass, Michael Galler and Melanie Zipp. All candidates are cross-filed.

Here are the responses to their questions, with candidates listed in alphabetical order:

Mike Galler

Town: Ross Township (Saylorsburg)

Background: A Pleasant Valley SD resident for the past 26 years and had two children attend PVSD and on the district’s Comprehensive Planning Committee as the parent rep and worked closely with Special Education component; 12 years of military service (Gulf War vet), eight years of welding trade experience and 21 years’ experience in education; associate degree from Northampton Community College; bachelor’s in Industrial Education from Temple University; a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Temple University.

Q: What are your three main goals if elected?

A: Ensuring students have opportunities to be successful in the three career pathways: military, postsecondary education and entry into the business and industry sector.

Ensuring all stakeholders are being fiscally responsible regarding the yearly budget, ensuring “most bank for the buck”

Ensuring our special education students/families have a solid understanding of the special education system from entry to exit, and providing them the tools/resources to be successful while in the school system and beyond.

Q: The district has been struggling with cyberschool costs to the point of furloughs. What is the solution to get spending under control while giving students the best education possible?

A: I alone to do not provide the “solution,” rather a team approach is needed to seek the answer. This team needs to have dialogue that will include school personnel, district families and local businesses as a whole. Our approach needs to be student-centered and strive to offer our students/families the best educational option where we capitalize on high standards for in-person instruction within the district along with MCTI and liaisons with our military branches.

Q: Pleasant Valley’s buildings are starting to show their age. What is the most cost effective way to maintain, repair or replace buildings?

A: We need to approach our buildings with a Priority Index which will reflect a degree of need and develop a Capital Plan: There are several factors we need to consider to include the following:

• Age and use of specific plant facility component

• Imminent danger/hazard to occupants from the existing condition of the plant component.

• Reported problems.

• Educational impact.

• Life cycle evaluation of present recommendation on projected life.

Laura Jecker

Town: Chestnuthill Township

Background: I have a strong background in business management, communication, public relations and elementary education. I am a current board member and have served as board treasurer for two years. I know the issues facing our district and have actively working to improve these issues with the board. I am active with Pennsylvania School Board Association and have completed 56 PSBA courses since 2018 and earned eight PSBA badges and the PSBA Certificate in Board Governance.

Q: What are your three main goals if elected?

A: The most important goal is addressing and correcting academic regression. During COVID our students suffered academic regression. The district needs to address and adjust the curriculum to make up for the educational time lost.

Streamlining spending and staffing overall - are we utilizing staff efficiently for their full potential? Are we paying for ancillary services that our students don’t need or use?

We should combine PVE and PVI bus runs to save on fuel and costs.

Q: The district has been struggling with cyberschool costs to the point of furloughs. What is the solution to get spending under control while giving students the best education possible?

A: Spending is not out of control, the unforeseen dramatic increase in out-of-district cyberschool costs have legally compelled the unbudgeted expenditures. As treasurer, I am responsible for questioning all areas of the budget, and I look for areas to be more efficient and not permit wish-list spending. Before the school year, I suggested that PV offer a third option of full remote synchronous learning, allowing parent choices and not be compelled to go to outside cyberlearning.

Q: Pleasant Valley’s buildings are starting to show their age. What is the most cost effective way to maintain, repair or replace buildings?

A: Pleasant Valley has a director of operations who has been tasked with reviewing and recommending maintenance and repair to our buildings. These items are discussed at the monthly operations workshops. Items are discussed and addressed in the order of importance and necessity. In my opinion, we should not be replacing buildings. We currently have a bond (2018) that is slated for capital improvements. Major repairs and replacement equipment have been addressed in this bond.

Diane Serfass

Town: Kunkletown

Background: I am running to: make clear and concise decisions to operate a school; creating a budget and operating within those budgetary constraints; work to create the best education possible for our students while keeping the parents and taxpayers; have a BS in management with a concentration in accounting, BA in economics; certified school business administrator, 15+ years school district experience; human resources, contract negotiations, service contracts, risk insurance, food service administration, budgeting, auditing, financial statements.

Q: What are your three main goals if elected?

A: 1. Be able to work with other board members as a team to make clear and concise decisions to operate the district within its financial means. Keeping taxpayers’ bottom line to a minimum while providing a top-quality education to the students

2. Review all service contracts and employment contracts for the most cost-effective terms possible.

3. Work with administration and staff to meet the needs of the curriculum and activities to provide the best education.

Q: The district has been struggling with cyberschool costs to the point of furloughs. What is the solution to get spending under control while giving students the best education possible?

A: We need to improve the quality of our in-house cyberschool. Renegotiate with the current vendor on costs, look for companies who can do the job cost effectively and produce a quality education or come up with a plan to use existing PV staff to run the in-house cyberschool with the same quality education that regular education students have.

We need to put pressure in Harrisburg on funding reform for all Pennsylvania schools.

Q: Pleasant Valley’s buildings are starting to show their age. What is the most cost effective way to maintain, repair or replace buildings?

A: Designate funds to a fund balance for Capital Reserve Project, used specifically for capital projects. A 3- to 5-year project plan should be established between administration and the board on how to allocate these funds. A specific amount should be budgeted each year to build up the capital reserve fund. Searching for grants for equipment is also a possible way to acquire needed items. Bond issues are a possible way to pay for bigger projects.

Donna Yozwiak

Town: Saylorsburg

Background: Donna Yozwiak brings more that 45 years of total educational experience at Pleasant Valley as an educator and as the current president of the board of education with master’s degrees in secondary education and in secondary counseling. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in English and history. She serves on the MCTI Joint Operating Committee, PV Policy Committee, PV Education Committee, PV Professional and Support Staff Negotiating Committees, PV Athletic and Finance Committees.

Q: What are your three main goals if elected?

A: Yozwiak’s plan is to address the key issues facing the district today: to keep taxes low by advocating that legislators approve fair funding formulas for cybercharter schools and all educational programs; to promote academic and career/technical excellence with increased requirements for graduation and to negotiate fair and responsible employee contracts.

Q: The district has been struggling with cyberschool costs to the point of furloughs. What is the solution to get spending under control while giving students the best education possible?

A: Yozwiak has advocated with legislators to establish improved cybercharter school funding methods and has begun the process of working with administration and staff to establish a PV teacher cybercharter program for synchronous and asynchronous learning that matches the PV curriculum to begin as soon as possible. Enticing former PV enrollees back into our brick-and-mortar and virtual programs will significantly reduce costs to taxpayers and improve the quality of education for all.

Q: Pleasant Valley’s buildings are starting to show their age. What is the most cost effective way to maintain, repair or replace buildings?

A: With the hiring of the new engineer of record and the establishment of a timeline to improve our buildings and infrastructure, Yozwiak has begun working with the team to determine the needs assessment and projected costs for the upcoming building projects. The PV High School ranks high on the list of improvements needed and is being addressed as the plans develop as she is a member of the PVHS Renovation Committee.

Melanie Zipp

Town: Brodheadsville

Background: I have a B.A. and an M.S. in chemistry and am working on my MBA with expected completion in December. I am a lifetime learner with 20 years of experience in large global pharmaceutical companies and 15 years of experience building and leading operational and quality teams and managing large operational budgets. In addition to manufacturing and leadership experience, I am trained in Six Sigma Green Belt methodologies focused on process improvements and elimination of waste.

Q: What are your three main goals if elected?

A: First and foremost, this is an opportunity for me to contribute to the community and try to help by offering a different perspective. I am most interested in focusing on further improvements with respect to district performance in science and technology as well as helping to improve/maintain a respectable level of fiscal responsibility.

Q: The district has been struggling with cyberschool costs to the point of furloughs. What is the solution to get spending under control while giving students the best education possible?

A: This is a difficult question to answer because to answer it effectively we need to really understand the root cause of why spending is not under control. I think there needs to be a methodical approach to understanding the cause(s) prior to being able to determine viable solutions.

Q: Pleasant Valley’s buildings are starting to show their age. What is the most cost effective way to maintain, repair or replace buildings?

A: The cost of maintenance and repair needs to be weighed against the cost and benefit of replacement, while considering future needs and spending. The decision over which option is more cost effective is relatively easy compared to determining how to fund a replacement when the time comes. The best we can do is prioritize and understand that we aren’t going to be able to have everything and be prepared to make difficult decisions.