The Panther Valley School District is welcoming back teachers this week as it prepares for the first day of classes Aug. 28.

New teacher orientation was today, and Superintendent David McAndrew Jr. invited school board members to come and meet the new hires.

The district will also have teacher in-service days on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

McAndrew noted that Thursday is Back to School Night with open houses hosted at each of the schools. Times are 5 to 7 p.m. at the elementary school, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the intermediate school and 6 to 8 p.m. at junior senior high school.

Football, volleyball and golf teams are already rolling, and the maintenance staff is getting the buildings ready for the new school year.

“Our buildings look fantastic,” he said. “This is the best these building have looked in five, six, seven years, as long as I can remember. Kudos to your staff and you.”

“We’re looking forward to seeing all the kids,” McAndrew said.

The school board also approved the improvement plans for each of the schools, which include bringing up student scores and benchmarks, and updated policies on discipline records, homeless students and meetings.

Personnel

The school board added Christine Rosenberger as a junior/senior high school special education teacher, under an emergency permit, at a salary of $72,062, per the current union contract.

They also approved Dr. Melanie Koehler of St. Luke’s Tamaqua Primary Care as the school physician for the school year at a stipend of $2,000.

Other personnel moves included hiring Amanda Porreca as a paraprofessional at a rate of $10 an hour, and Gina Fatzie as a full-time permanent accounts payable federal programs clerk as part of the confidential administrative staff. Her salary will be $17.50 an hour.

The board accepted the resignation of Ralph Piontkowski, a junior/senior special education teacher, effective immediately.

Board resignation

Board member Steven Foster also tendered his resignation, and the board accepted it with regret. Board President Daniel Matika said Foster had moved out of the area.

“He was definitely a great asset to the board,” he said. “So, we’ll miss Steve tremendously.”

Matika asked McAndrew to post for a new school board member.