Pleasant Valley Elementary School will have a new assistant principal next year.

The Pleasant Valley School Board approved appointing Sarah Adams in an 8-1 vote to the position at their meeting on May 25.

School board director Teresa Greggo said she was voting no, because of Adams work experience.

“There’s much to be said about experience,” Greggo said.

She pointed out that the district’s qualifications for assistant principal state the candidate should have a minimum of five years of successful experience as a teacher or an educational specialist.

“For that reason, I’m going to vote no tonight,” Greggo said.

According to Adams biography on the Pleasant Valley Elementary School website, she has been a guidance counselor there for five years. Before that, she was a school counselor in the East Stroudsburg Area School District for eight years, and also worked as a professor of psychology at Northampton Community College.

Adams has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wilkes University and a masters of education in elementary school counseling from Penn State.

Some of the qualifications for assistant principal jobs in Northampton County listed on Indeed want a valid, current Pennsylvania certificate as a K-12 principal. They also want candidates to have a master’s degree in educational leadership, educational supervision or a related career; and five years of experience in teaching instruction.

Adams’ new position will pay her $77,850 per year.

One item on the agenda that was removed was the hiring of Dr. Susan Mowrer Benda, who is retiring at the end of this school year, to act as an independent contractor for $70 per hour for a maximum of up to five hours per week for next school year. The school board did not say why the item was removed.

Mowrer Benda was the director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. She was replaced with PVHS English teacher Bernadette Fierro, who was promoted at the May 11 school board meeting with the title of supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction and a salary of $100,000. Fierro’s qualifications were not available.

Personnel items

• Retirement - George Boudman, art teacher, PVHS; and Dana West, teacher, PVMS;

• Change to current assignment for 2023/2024 School Year - Amanda Altemose, from ESOL/ELA at PVMS to English at PVHS; Michael Birnbaum, emotional support at PVMS to special education cyber teacher districtwide; Stephen Caffrey, special education at PVHS to special education - PAES at PVHS; Jennifer Elston, substitute teacher to first-grade teacher, both at PVES, Step 5 $53,857; Aleisa Kinsey, K-4 Cyber Teacher to Family Consumer Science/Business Education Teacher at PVHS; Arianna Weaver, Substitute Teacher to Math Teacher, both at PVMS, Step 1 $47,357; and Karen Gianotti, first grade teacher at PVES to second grade teacher.