Pleasant Valley School Board is poised to pass a resolution Monday night to accept the resignation of the Superintendent James Konrad, and then rehire him back with a new contract and a salary of $215,000, a $25,000 raise over his current salary.

Konrad’s current contract with the resignation would be effective as of Dec. 31, 2024. According to his contract, he is required to give the school board notification of his resignation in writing 90 days prior to his last day of employment. It is not clear when he submitted his resignation.

Susan Kresge, who is president of the school board, said she would like to wait until after the meeting to make a comment.

If the school board passes the resolution, this would in effect be Konrad’s second raise in three months.

In August, Konrad and Assistant Superintendent Rae Lyn Howard both received 4% pay increases. These increases brought Konrad’s salary to $189,392, up from $182,108; and Howard’s salary increased from $155,328 to $161,541.

At that August school board meeting, resident Linda Zak, of Ross Township, spoke at the end of the meeting during the public comment period. “I understand there’s a 3.5% cap in the contract, so I’m wondering why this exceeds even that amount. … 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.”

When Konrad was hired in December 2021, his contract was for five years with his first day of employment being no later than Jan. 10, 2022. His annual salary was $170,000 and prorated for the remainder of the 2012-22 school year. It remained the same for the 2022-23 school year.

His contract called for pay raises of not less than 2% and not higher than 3.5% for the 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years. It also included two longevity bonuses of $2,000 each to be paid on Jan. 1, 2024, and again on Jan. 1, 2026 if he remained in the job.

The vote to pass the 4% increases in August was not unanimous among the school board. Director John Gesiskie voted no, while President Sue Kresge, Vice President Michael Galler, Melanie Zipp, Norman Burger, Ryan O’Keefe and Robert Clark voted yes. Directors Diane Serfass and Matthew Walters were absent from the meeting.

Gesiskie said that he thought the administrators did a good job, but mentioned the longevity bonus in January as one of the reasons he voted against the raises. The money was to be paid into their 403(b) retirement plans.

The resolution on the agenda for Monday night’s meeting makes Konrad’s new employment contract effective Jan. 1, 2025 for five years until Dec. 31, 2030. In addition to his salary of $215,000, his new contract has a base salary increase of 3% for the 2026-27, 2027-28, 2028-29 and 2029-30 school years, but the 3.5% cap is removed.

The contract states, “Additionally, and notwithstanding the adjustment provision noted above, the Board reserves the right to increase Dr. Konrad’s annual salary adjustment at its sole discretion over and above the increases noted under this Section. This may come in the form of a bonus or additional moneys added to the base salary of the Superintendent.”

Both the old and the new contracts, state under the section titled Performance Review that the superintendent will be evaluated on his performance, which include: student achievement on Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, Keystone Exams or other measures delineated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. These measures include student attrition and graduation rates, financial management of the district, overall job performance and successfully meeting his goals.

In the area of student attrition, student enrollment in the bricks and mortar schools has been on a slight, but continuous decline for several years.

According to the enrollment report for November, there were 3,843 students in the district’s school buildings. The following is the data for bricks and mortar enrollment in November of 2018 through 2024 from the enrollment reports.

• 2018: 4,296 children;

• 2019: 4,186 children;

• 2020: 2,894 children (during COVID-19);

• 2021: 3,846 children (also during COVID-19);

• 2022: 4,039 children;

• 2023: 3,968 children, and;

• 2024: 3,843 children.

Meanwhile, the number of children in the school district who could attend classes in its public schools, but not all do, also shows some losses and gains. Those numbers for November for 2018 through 2024 are:

• 2018: 5,026 children;

• 2019: 4,892 children;

• 2020: 4,852 children;

• 2021: 4,909 children;

• 2022: 4,943 children;

• 2023: 4,949 children, and;

• 2024: 4,913 children.

One thing that has increased is the number of students in outside cyber and charter schools.

At the Nov. 14 school board meeting, director Norman Burger asked about the increase.

“I noticed an increase on the number of grades and the number of students going into cyber academy,” Burger said “Did these things come from classrooms themselves or did they come from the cyber schools. Where did they come from and what were the reasons?”

Enrollment numbers for outside charter and cyber schools are up over 400 with 420 students in October and 410 students in November. Bears Academy was up to 227 students in November.

Jason Van Voorhis, the director of Technology Education and Innovation, answered his question. He became the principal of the Bears Academy in March 2023, but his title was changed to its current one in April 2024. VanVoorhis confirmed that enrollment is up in the Bears Academy, but didn’t speak about outside cyber and charter schools.

“This actually happens almost every year with our cyber program where we start off at a certain number and then gradually throughout the year our number grows and grows. The reasons for that is, it’s really actually all over the place,” VanVoorhis said and stated some reasons being traveling, disciplinary reasons, and employment during regular school hours.

The board meets at 7 p.m. Monday in the Pleasant Valley District Administration Conference Room on Route 115 in Brodheadsville,