The Pleasant Valley School Board voted 7-3 to sign a 10-year contract with St. Luke’s University Health Network for health care for its schools and athletic programs.

Both during the school board meeting on May 28 and again at this meeting on Thursday evening, parents and coaches spoke favorably about the service their children and students received with Coordinated Health. The school district had been with the health system for the last 22 years.

Coordinated Health has offices across the street from the middle school on Route 115.

In 2019, Coordinated Health was purchased by Lehigh Valley Health Network.

St. Luke’s has a physical therapy office on Route 209 across from the Wawa in Chestnuthill Township.

Voting against the change were school board directors Susan Kresge, Todd Kresge and Teresa Greggo, who is the chairperson of the athletic committee and coached in the school district for 10 years.

Before the vote, Greggo said the decision was difficult and required a great amount of research, discussion and deep thought. She went on to echo many of the same sentiments parents and coaches had made, as well as a list of professional affiliations of the Coordinated Health staff.

“You don’t get demoted for doing a good job. You get promoted,” she said. “I think we need to ask ourselves, ‘Why are we considering losing the experienced entity of Coordinated Health when they only gave us their very best over the past 20 years?’ Rather than starting with unknowns and uncertainties, our existing foundation has strengths. Let’s build it up from there together.”

She also said she wanted to share a statement sent to her the night before. She read, “Can St. Luke’s provide that same personalized service? In business, decisions are always based on finances and promises, then after time, the fact comes out it is still business and you’re children are just pawns in a financial gain. I understand this decision affects our citizens as taxes are already high, but sometimes the bigger picture and known entity need to be valued more than the bottom line. Loyalty is something that is overlooked in America today and that should not be.”

Directors Todd Kresge and Susan Kresge both said they agreed with Greggo. Director Dan Wunder also said he wasn’t completely happy with how this process was handled.

He said that in the six years that he has been on the school board, he has received more letters and emails on both sides of this topic than any other.

“Being a board member is no easy task. As you know, this has become a hot issue,” Wunder said. “I want to reassure everyone that my vote tonight is not based on politics. It is not based on money. It is solely based on everything that I’ve done in research as far as what’s best for our program, and what’s best for our kids.”

Overall the St. Luke’s plan will provide sports medicine and performance services, behavioral health, health care and wellness services, accident and injury prevention, and other services and considerations. These considerations consist of sponsorships and donations.

According to a document in the agenda comparing the proposals from both health networks, the proposals list most of the same items with some slight differences.

During the school board directors’ discussion, it was said that both networks increased the number of athletic trainers to 4.5 with St. Luke’s and four with LVHN.

The document comparing both networks showed that St. Luke’s said it could save the school district about $96,000 per year on sports medicine injury claims management.

LVHN did not give a figure. Instead, it said, “Claims review and management services offered. Savings expectations needs to be aligned with claims experience after comprehensive analysis. Value TBD (to be determined).”

As far as sponsorships and donations, the total amount from LVHN was $1.374,000, while St. Luke’s was $1.357,500. But the total amount of potential savings with St. Luke’s was $1,122,500 and LVHN at $780,000. That’s a difference of $342,500.

The school district’s solicitor has to review the final contract, and then it will go before the board to be ratified.