There’s more movement in personnel in the Pleasant Valley School District.

The school board approved the resignation of 20 employees Thursday night during the regular meeting.

Among those leaving are David Sodl Jr., one of two assistant principals at the high school; four teachers, Amanda Ruch and Amanda Tarapchak, both at PVE, and Michele Connors and Kathleen Krall, both at PVMS; Kerilyn Semeraro, guidance counselor at PVI; Kacie Hay, speech and language therapist at PVE; Daniel Beck, event manager; and Doug Palmieri, an emotional support teacher at PVHS.

Palmieri had been the supervisor of transportation and administrative services, until the position was dissolved in June. Originally the position was called the director of buildings and grounds and was held by Travis Serfass. After Serfass left, the position was changed last summer at the June 25, 2020, school board meeting and the position definition was adjusted.

Before accepting the transportation and administrative services supervisor role, Palmieri was the supervisor of special education. When that position was dissolved, he was given the option to take a different position in the school district.

On Thursday night, the school board approved creating the position of supervisor of transportation and student operations. Acting Superintendent Charlene Brennan said the position is very different from the former position held by Palmieri.

“First, it is two levels below where it was organizationally in our structure. Second, the old position supervised transportation and custodians. This position, while supervising transportation, will also supervise the coordinator of child accounting, Pennsylvania Information Management System reporting, the student information management system and parent portal, registration and enrollment,” she said. “The prior position reported directly to the superintendent. This lower level position will report to the business manager.”

Brennan said the salary has not been set for the position yet, but it will be significantly lower than the previous position.

The board also approved changing the responsibilities of the assistant manager and increasing the salary. The position is held by Tammy Smale, who took on additional duties between the retirement of the former business manager Susan Famularo in December 2020 and the arrival of the new business manager Michael Simonetta in August. Her salary was $77,500 and is now $92,500, but the stipend she was receiving for the extra duties has ended.

“We have added significant responsibilities to her position in both the financial area, as well as adding supervision of our entire food service department and our ACCESS medical billing,” Brennan said. “Her position changed in the transitions we’ve had in our business office.”

Brennan recommended that several related positions coordinating and overseeing critical student operations, such as child accounting, PIMS reporting, Food Service, ACCESS billing, registration and enrollment, the district’s student information system and parent portal should be pulled in under one person who would be responsible for student operations.

She said these areas “were distributed under various other supervisors, creating a disconnect in what are critical operations that affect revenue and subsidies, as well as are critical to parents and students and the services we provide to them.”

Brennan thinks that by pulling them together, it will create better communication and collaboration, increase productivity and support the needs of each area.

The school board directors also approved the job description for a cyberteacher position.

“We already have a teacher who has been doing a wonderful job for us and who will fill that position. This was just to update her job description,” Brennan said.

The teacher will be solely dedicated to the cyberacademy and will not teach in-person classes.

In addition to those who resigned, the directors also approved the retirement of Lorraine Domenici, paraprofessional at PVE; Monte Miller, custodian at PVMS; and Dolores Symancek, monitor at PVHS; and letting go several other employees. Six people were let go, but their job titles and reasons for dismissal were not given. An additional 38 people who worked in various substitute roles were let go because they did not let the school district know if they were coming back or not.

New hires include: Michelle Albanese, health and physical education teacher, $44,463, replacing Karl Rentzheimer; and two speech and language therapists at PVE, Alexandria Gentile, replacing Kacie Hay; and Jaclyn Hahn, replacing Emily Bumbulsky.

New support staff hires include: Rickie Kuntzman Jr., custodian, PVHS, $17.84, replacing Jacquelyn Dumas; Tina Radcliffe, monitor, PVE, $10.97, replacing Wendy Heller; Christina Blomberg, monitor PVHS, $10.97, replacing Diane Stewart; and Mary Colon, monitor, PVHS, $10.97, replacing Jane Shevlin.

They also called back from layoff two paraprofessionals for the elementary school: Aileen Lorah, replacing Lorraine Domenici; and Renee Kresge, replacing Sharon Graver.