The Pleasant Valley School District is nearing an agreement with the Pleasant Valley Education Association.

Mark Fitzgerald, the solicitor for the school district, told the school board on Thursday night that he intends to contact the Pennsylvania State Education Association soon with a draft version of a collective bargaining agreement.

He said they are still going back and forth with the teachers union about some of the language.

“We hope to be bringing that into harbor,” he said. “If things go well, we hope we can get a contract presented to all parties and voted on at a meeting in April.”

In the meantime, there were 21 teachers who accepted the district’s retirement incentive offer. They include:

• PVES: Cynthia Bartoli, first grade; Catherine Lauchnor, second grade; Anne Frohnheiser and Paulette Percey, both reading; Deborah Olah and Kimberly Sautter, both special education; and Sandi Kaspszyk, instructional support;

• PVIS: none;

• PVMS: Kathleen Dekmar, reading; Susan Squindo, math; Amy Hafferty and Carla Karpinski, both music teachers; and Bobbi Shupp, information processing;

• PVHS: Daniel Beck, Kristen Matweecha and Karen Behmke, all special education; Scott Castone, business education; Timothy Ernest and Caroline Gold, both science; Ann Parham, gifted; and Carol Patterson, Spanish; and Melissa Lambert, guidance counselor.

According to the memorandum of understanding concerning the conditional retirement incentive, the amount of the incentive is calculated based on the employee’s salary in the 2021-2022 school year.

If the employee has at least 15 years of continuous professional service in the Pleasant Valley School District, then he or she will receive 35% of his or her base salary, but the employee has to retire permanently into the Public School Employees’ Retirement System.

The money will be paid out in two installments: one payment on or before Oct. 31, and the second on or before Feb. 28.

Superintendent James Konrad said the district expects the retirements to decrease the school district’s deficit by $2.7 million for next school year’s budget. In addition to salaries, employees also receive benefits that add to the overall expense.

School Board President Susan Kresge said she thinks there are five positions among those that have decided to retire that will need to be replaced.

In addition to these retirements, Shelley Kotulka, a teacher at PVIS, has decided to retire, as well as Jane Fisher, a secretary at PVMS.

Resignations include: Adam Bastidas, boys soccer head coach; Theresa Dinunzi, substitute monitor and substitute paraprofessional; Patrick Luchowski, boys baseball scorebook/scorekeeper; and Debra Hvasta, substitute monitor.

There were also some people hired.

The school district promoted Kyle Bonser to the position of director of athletic and activities at a salary of $84,000. He was a health and physical education teacher at PVMS and will replace Tom Toth.

The district also hired Zoe Attinello to be a long-term substitute kindergarten teacher at PVES. Her salary is $45,067. And the district offered a supplemental contract for athletic noncoaching to Augie Kresge for spring event manager at $610.41.