In a six to one vote, the Pleasant Valley School Board approved 4% pay raises for the superintendent and assistant superintendent at their meeting on Thursday.

Director John Gesiskie voted against the pay raises. Those voting for it were President Sue Kresge, Vice President Michael Galler, Melanie Zipp, Norman Burger, Ryan O’Keefe, and Robert Clark. Diane Serfass and Matthew Walters were absent from the meeting.

The pay increase brings Superintendent James Konrad’s salary to $189,392, up from $182,108. Assistant Superintendent Rae Lin Howard’s salary increased from $155,328 to $161,541.

Gesiskie said he felt the administrators did a good job, but was voting no.

“I know (they) just got a $2,000 bonus that comes in January for longevity,” Gesiskie said. “I also feel that in the past, we had administrators that worked long hours in the summertime, Monday through Thursday and then took off Friday. And now from what I’m seeing, it’s a regular workday Monday through Thursday and (they) take off Friday. So I look at that, that there’s 20 Fridays of extra vacation days, so to speak, and if you do a per diem, I think that’s a big enough raise. It is about $7,000, so I don’t see the reason for the — again — for the increase of that type of raise.”

During the public comment period, Linda Zak of Ross Township spoke about the pay increases.

“I understand there’s a 3.5% cap in the contract, so I’m wondering why this exceeds even that amount. It seems like a very high raise and I have six points that I’d like to bring up that I think would counter indicate that raise,” Zak said. “I do wonder if it has anything to do with the new influx of money that’s going to be coming from the Pennsylvania state into education. I hope we’re not just feeling flushed with riches giving out raises.”

Among the points Zak raised were the following:

• The school district lost the Singer Family Foundation scholarship, which was $90,000 a year;

• Pleasant Valley ranks only 276 out 696 schools in Pennsylvania as stated by the School Digger rating;

• An increase in students in outside cyber school enrollment, which she said is up to 416 students;

• About 60% of the Guidance Department has left;

• Continuing to outsource services while administration gets “top heavy.”

“There’s been a lot of discussion about this on the Pleasant Valley Community page,” Zak said. “People are really angry that as the student enrollment goes down, our administrator enrollment goes up. That seems counterintuitive.”