Pleasant Valley High School’s new assistant principal is a familiar face.

The Pleasant Valley School District board of directors approved hiring former Dean of Students Jamie Rockwell during its meeting Thursday night.

Rockwell was furloughed last spring and went on get a new job as the assistant principal at Pen Argyl High School, but her heart was with her alma mater.

“Being furloughed, your chances are closed unexpectedly, so the opportunity arose to come back and thankfully administration welcomed me back with open arms. I’m very excited to come back home,” she said.

Rockwell said she grew up in the Pleasant Valley School District, and still lives there.

“I enjoy being an assistant principal. Thankfully, I have the dean of students experience, which lead me into the joy of being in administration, as well as keeping my special education background. I get the best of both worlds being an assistant principal,” she said.

Working in a high school setting wasn’t originally where Rockwell saw herself.

“I never thought I would love working in a high school, but I absolutely love working with the kids,” she said. “No matter what they’re doing, you can reason with them, you can talk to them, and you can help them reach their goals for when their finished with high school.”

Co-principal Brian Boylan said, “We are excited to have Jamie join the administrative team at Pleasant Valley High School as she is invaluable. We look forward to working with her.”

Rockwell’s first day as assistant principal is yet to be determined. Her salary will be $84,000 and will be prorated.

James Percey, a retired athletic director from PVHS, is returning as a mentor to the new athletic director James Korcienski, who will be starting his new position this month.

Percey will be coming in to mentor Korcienski for up to 30 hours per week at $45 per hour. His start date has not been determined yet.

Korcienski has 26 years of experience in education. He is coming to Pleasant Valley from the Bethlehem Area School District, where he has been the athletic director at the middle school for eight years and has worked there for 22 years as a middle school science teacher, assistant football coach and assistant softball coach.

Korcienski lives in the Pleasant Valley School District and has three children who all graduated from PVHS.

Korcienski applied for the athletic director position after Tom Toth left in February, but the job was given to Kyle Bonser, who was already working at the high school as a physical education teacher. Bonser turned in his resignation in September.

“We’re really excited for our new athletic director to begin,” Superintendent James Konrad said in an interview.

The reason behind hiring a mentor was to “set up our athletic program for success. We just want to get off on the right foot,” Konrad said.

Although Percey could work up to 30 hours per week, he will probably put in less than eight, Konrad said.

There was some resistance to the hiring of Percey.

Ann Gravell, of Polk Township, said during the first of the two public comment sections of the school board meeting, “You guys are spending money like it’s water. I don’t think this man should be hired.”

When the hiring came up for vote later in the meeting, the school board voted unanimously to hire Percey.

School board director Theresa Greggo, who chairs the athletic committee, said she hopes hiring Percey will provide a smooth transition for the new athletic director.