All three incumbents from the Pleasant Valley School Board retained their seats in the election Tuesday night. Six seats were open.

School board President Susan Kresge snatched the fifth seat with 3,297 votes or 12% of the vote for another four-year term. She ran on both the Democrat and Republican tickets.

“Volunteering and giving back to my community are important values to me,” Kresge said before the election.

School board director Robert Clark, a Republican, also got his seat back for a four-year term with 3,442 votes, also 12% of the vote. Clark had been appointed to the school board in 2022 after director Laura Jecker resigned in August 2022. All votes are unofficial until certified by the election board.

Clark said his three main priorities if re-elected “would be collaborating with district leadership to improve student achievement and narrowing the achievement gap, promoting a safe and inclusive learning environment for all Pleasant Valley students, and continuing to strive to foster stronger community engagement and open lines of communication with all district stakeholders.”

Incumbent Norman Burger also will be returning to the school board for a two-year term. He won with 60% of the vote against former school board director Donna Yozwiak. Burger is on the school board’s finance committee and the capital improvement plan committee.

Before the election, Burger said his goal “is to bring the principles of affordability, essentiality, effectiveness and financial solvency into the creation of the budget, including the planning for and designing of the high school renovation. Our board and business office have taken steps to improve the district’s financial condition. Today, our credit rating is in the top 10% of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts. This lowers future borrowing cost, which helps control tax increases.”

Newcomers to the school board include Republicans Ryan O’Keefe; Matthew Walters, a Pleasant Valley graduate; and John Gesiskie, a retired educator with experience in leadership in the teachers’ union. Each of them had 13% of the vote. O’Keefe had 3,644 votes, Walters 3,577, and Gesiskie 3,536. They were elected to four-year terms.

Walters said, before the election, “Pleasant Valley has a rich history and a bright future, and I feel obligated to run for a chance to be a part of the next chapters.”

Mary Elizabeth Colon, Peter DeSanto Jr., and Erika Engle, all Democrats, were also on the ballot.

A Pleasant Valley graduate, Engle said Tuesday afternoon while she greeted voters outside the Polk Township Volunteer Fire Company, “I will try again, because I am thankful of all my friends and family who have supported me. I don’t want to disappoint them.”