The Pleasant Valley School Board confirmed moving the assistant principal from the intermediate school to the middle school as the new principal on Thursday night. Timothy McCutchan took over for former principal Kendal Askins on June 3.

A Pleasant Valley High School graduate in 2001, McCutchan came back to the district in 2008 to work as a social studies teacher at the high school and instructional coach. With the restructuring after COVID-19, he was moved to the middle school and taught social studies there. In July 2022, he was hired as the new assistant principal at the intermediate school, following the departure of Annette Schaffer.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity,” he said about becoming the principal at the middle school. “I’m really going to miss all of the teachers and the team. Sabrina has been an amazing mentor to me at PVI.”

McCutchan said his family moved to the school district in 1994 when he was in sixth grade and started school at the middle school. He said he was looking through old yearbooks and saw a picture of himself at that age.

“Exactly 30 years later, I’m returning now as principal,” he said. “So I look at that picture, that sixth grade boy, and wow, look at you now.”

McCutchan’s new salary as principal is $102,000.

“It’s truly an honor to have the support of district administration and the school board,” McCutchan said. “I think what I bring to the middle school is a sense of home and community. I’m from here, graduated from here, my boys go here. I care about this place. I care about our teachers, our support staff. I care about the success of our students. Being a graduate of this district, I take it to heart, and I want to see the middle school succeed. So I would say what a bring here is heart.”

McCutchan’s team at the middle school includes Josephine Dyett-Fields, assistant principal; Richard Rimple, dean of students, and Ramon Rodriguez, who was hired as an assistant principal in May.

In his place at the intermediate school, Lauryn Bencker, a second-grade teacher from Fountain Hill Elementary School in the Bethlehem Area School District, will be joining the school district’s administration staff as an assistant principal at the intermediate school. She will begin her new job on July 1 with a salary of $82,000. This is her first assignment in administration.

“To say I’m thrilled would be an understatement,” Bencker said. “I’m excited, I’m happy. It’s like a pinch me moment.”

Bencker said the school district’s approach to teaching is similar to hers.

“Their approach to educating the whole child with your head, heart and hands, that aligns so well with me,” she said.

Also joining the school district is Cevrina Vazquez. She will be a new school counselor at the high school. She is coming in at Step 1 with a salary of $56,842, and will begin on July 1.

“It’s great to have you with us in the school district,” said school board President Susan Kresge to the new hires.

The school district also signed an affiliation agreement with Drexel University for students to do their student teaching assignments.