In a surprise response to declining enrollment, Pleasant Valley School District has furloughed six full-time positions, one part-time position and reduced another from full time to part time.

In total, the district is eliminating the equivalent of 23 people, Superintendent Carole Geary said.Geary said a furlough is when a tenured teacher's position is eliminated."They have call back rights so if a position opens in an area they are certified in they will be called back to take the position. It is similar to a layoff with no pay. They can be called back," Geary said."This was a tough week for a lot of people. We do have great people working for us. We offered a retirement incentive with the hope that we could mitigate furloughs. We had 19 people retire and are replacing three," she said.When asked if this was a sudden decision, Geary answered that the district had been working on it throughout the year as enrollment continued to decline.In 2005-2006, the enrollment was at 7,024. Today, the enrollment in actual PV brick and mortar buildings is 4,955.Geary attributes these figures to the downturn in the economy and people moving out of the district.The decision to furlough teachers was not mentioned at any recent school board meetings.Melissa Melewsky, Pennsylvania News Media Association's media law counsel. said that placing employees on furlough is official action, which can only take place by board vote at a public meeting and only after there has been an opportunity for public comment."This is required by the Sunshine Act, and there is no exception to this rule. Furlough is akin to hiring and firing employees, a task always handled by school board vote," Melewsky said.Geary said it was a personnel item discussed in executive session."We have great people working for us. We strongly feel that our employees deserve to hear this from us personally and not read about it on a board report. We also know other school districts are beginning to post openings so we wanted them to know so they have the ability to obtain another position. Chris Fisher (assistant superintendent) or I met personally with every staff member affected with either a furlough or a transfer. They will appear on a board report in the future," Geary said.However, Melewsky said, "Any time a government agency takes action outside a public meeting it creates potential Sunshine Act compliance issues."The Sunshine Act allows civil and criminal penalties for intentional violations of the law. Moreover, it puts the public at a disadvantage because they can't understand the school's action or the consequences and this can erode the public's trust in school board members and administrators."Melewsky, describing furloughs, said, "I don't believe there is a statewide legal definition of furlough, but a common understanding is a temporary layoff without pay. Furloughs are typically temporary, with employees called back to work at some point in the future, but not always."The furloughs included football coach and health and physical education teacher Jim Terwilliger. Terwilliger announced he would not return as head football coach for the 2014-2015 school year.Baseball coach Charlie Inserra, also a health and physical education teacher, was also furloughed.Geary said the job eliminations will not affect the education offered."Our class sizes will be comparable to this year and we are not cutting programs so we will continue to offer a well-rounded solid program for our students. We have and will continue to rightsize our staff if enrollment continues to decline to be fiscally responsible to our community," Geary said.