The Pleasant Valley School Board approved salary increases for the superintendent and assistant superintendent at its Aug. 10 meeting.

Superintendent James Konrad and Assistant Superintendent Rae Lin Howard were given a 3.5% salary increase above their 2022-2023 salary.

Konrad was hired in November 2021 with a five-year contract and a starting salary of $170,000 per year. It was not stated how much his new salary will be for the 2023-2024 school year, but Konrad received a similar salary increase last summer. His new salary should be about $182,000.

Howard was hired a year before Konrad in November 2020 with a salary of $125,000. With similar percentage increases, Howard’s salary would now be about $138,500.

None of the school board members commented on the salary increases, but resident Nellie Gordon of Chestnuthill Township did.

During public comment at the beginning of the meeting, Gordon said, “I’m just kind of curious about the salary increases when everywhere else you’ve been cutting programs, salaries, furloughing teachers and other staff. Why is there an increase for administrative salaries? Seems to me that if you’re really in this budget crisis, that everything should be kept stable, either as is or cut.”

While the top administrators received small salary increases, Michael McMullen, the assistant director of special education, resigned.

At the June 29 meeting, the school board approved to assign McMullen to the middle school as an emotional support teacher with a salary of $72,857. He had been promoted to the position of assistant director in December 2022, after being a special education supervisor.

There wasn’t any comment about his resignation.