Teachers reported back to school earlier this week as Pleasant Valley School District gets ready to start a new school year.

"We had some excellent feedback from teachers who returned to their classrooms this week," said Superintendent Carol Geary. "We especially had wonderful comments on the speaker assembly we had the first day back."Geary had invited author and speaker, Jonathan Freisen to speak to the returning staff.Freisen was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome in his teens but despite the set-back he completed his education and later became a teacher.Freisen's message, according to Geary, was that every child wants to be seen, and that every child wants to know that they matter.Geary read a number of emails she received from teachers who attended the assembly all of which praised Freisen and his message.Another very positive item covered during the meeting was a presentation to the board by Keri Ramsey and Savonne Liddic. Both Ramsey and Liddic ran the summer reading and math camp."We followed the theme, 'Every hero has a story,'" said Ramsey. "So we had daily themes that centered on super heroes."The themes all tied into the math and reading programs encouraging the students to complete various tasks. Some of the favorites were "super hero training" where students had to answer math and reading questions to compete in the next level of a physical competition and there was a day when students brought their favorite stuffed animals to class and wrote stories featuring their stuffed animals as the super hero in the story.According to Ramsey and Liddic the program was a great success.Geary also mentioned that she is continues to investigate opening up the district to tuition based students in the future. Though Geary did say that the district recently registered an additional 174 students, bringing the current enrollment up to 4,500, however she did say that the number included a number of students who had withdrawn very recently.In general all of the staff present were excited about the beginning of the new school year.