The board of directors of Pleasant Valley School District accepted resignation letters from two administrators Thursday night.

Travis Serfass, director of buildings and grounds, resigned effective July 26. Jason Mattern, athletic director, resigned effective July 11.

Serfass worked as buildings and grounds director since September 2015. He recently accepted a job at Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, where he will become that school’s facilities engineer effective Aug. 1.

School board member Ken Cocuzzo, who heads the board’s property committee, thanked Serfass for his time in the district. Cocuzzo said Serfass went above and beyond his job description by keeping projects on schedule and saving the district money when he could. Cocuzzo said Serfass was especially helpful in difficult situations like when the district discovered mold inside Pleasant Valley Intermediate School just days before the beginning of the 2018-19 school year. Schools in several local districts had to temporarily close classrooms and schools mold around the same time.

Pleasant Valley Intermediate School remained closed for about a week until remediation could be completed.

“I fully appreciate what it takes to deal with crisis management situations, having dealt with them myself. Travis repeatedly did that for us, in particular the way he handled our mold problem,” Cocuzzo said.

Board member Dan Wunder also thanked Serfass for having a high level of expertise and commitment to the district.

Superintendent David Piperato said the district plans to reconfigure the Director of Buildings and Grounds position, and there is no timeline to fill it. In February the district hired a director of operations, William Gasper, at a salary of $98,500.

Mattern resigned as athletic director July 11 after being hired June 20. He was cited for harassment for a July 5 incident in Lancaster County where he allegedly pushed a wife to the floor and grabbed her face.

At Thursday’s meeting Chestnuthill resident Sandy Bartashunas said that was troubling, but she was concerned that the district didn’t properly look into why Mattern resigned from his previous athletic director job after less than a year, under an agreement.

“If a person needs a settlement agreement after less than a year with a district, that person should never have been considered for any position in Pleasant Valley without some clarification of the agreement,” Bartashunas said.

The athletic director position was reposted on July 15 following Mattern’s resignation. The job description on the district website says the start date for the position is as soon as possible. Fall sports practices begin Aug. 13, and football teams are allowed to begin heat acclimatization Aug. 6. Like in all school district positions, applicants are required to pass criminal and child abuse background checks.

In March, the district decided to make the athletic director position an administrative level position. Previously it was held by a teacher, Jake Percey, who was athletic director for 14 years.

After the decision to make it an administrative position, the Pleasant Valley Education Association, the union representing the district’s teachers, accused the district of illegally assigning one of its members’ duties to a nonunion member.