A week can make a difference.

After not attending the last school board meeting, Pleasant Valley Superintendent Carole Geary brought up the school's math issues Thursday night to come up with an affordable contract to bring back Penn State professorPaul Riccomini to assist teachers and students with their math skills and help get test scores up."He has spent the last year working with us," Geary said."He really likes Pleasant Valley, so we went back and said we were having a concern with our board and cost is an issue. He actually said that I really want to work with you guys, so I will drop it. He's actually really happy with what we're doing here. There's something called fidelity and implementation whenever you have something new, and what he sees here is that we implement the strategies that he's teaching us with fidelity and you don't see that everywhere," she said."When he sees a place that does that, he wants to work with them because then he can truly see the results of his labors."Geary said,"The PA core was implemented, and if you look at our fifth-grade scores, they're low. If you look at our eighth-grade scores, they're abysmal because the PA core was implemented."Geary said of the Pennsylvania Core standards, "It wasn't something that they gradually implemented. It was something that was imposed and they had to perform, and the curriculum is really rigorous in math."The proposed budget to bring Riccomini back to help Pleasant Valley with the math issues dropped from $66,000 to $48,000 after the board asked for a lower price due to cost concerns. The relationship the school has with him and his mathematical research helps the district out in their attempt for students excelling."I think that's part of the reason why we believe we needed to get some training for our teachers so that we're teaching at the level that's expected by the state," Geary said. "At the end of the day, I only care about our kids being successful and getting what they need."Three people on the board voted no to the revised proposal, but it passed regardless.Geary discussed the 2016-17 school year budget with board secretary Susan Famularo, who also handled the business management decisions, and all went through.Famularo also presented a five-year plan to possibly increase school taxes for Pleasant Valley to get completely out of debt. There hasn't been a tax increase in six years for residents in the district.The approval of the upcoming season of fall assistant and winter head coaches also passed, but one board member didn't agree with the wrestling coach for the 2016-17 season.The next time Pleasant Valley School Board will meet is 8 p.m. May 26.