Grand jury report: Fear, frustration in Pleasant Valley

Part 2 of the look at the Monroe County grand jury report on the investigation into Pleasant Valley School District.

A 106-page grand jury report released by the Monroe County District Attorney’s office this week details an atmosphere where people were afraid of retaliation if they spoke up. Several instances are documented where employees were transferred or interrogated after filing complaints.

As a result of the investigation, the grand jury has called for criminal charges to be brought against former Superintendent Carole Geary and Assistant to the Superintendent Christopher Fisher, with additional charges recommended against Joshua Krebs.

Krebs was arrested Dec. 26, 2017, and charged with multiple counts related to wiretapping in relation to placing a video/audio recorder in a break room at the elementary school. On June 20, Krebs was arrested and charged with three counts of perjury, all felonies, and three misdemeanor counts of false swearing in an official proceeding.

Krebs has pleaded not guilty to all counts and is preparing to go to trial.

Some of the testimony included in the report:

Lila Metz

Lila Metz, retired assistant principal and teacher, said she filed a letter with human resources saying she was “ostracized by administration and treated unfavorably.” Because of this, she was forced to appear before one of the district’s solicitors and answer questions related to her complaint. After the third “interview,” Metz was so worn down that she withdrew her complaint.

“The fact that Mrs. Metz would be compelled to sit before an attorney and official court reporter, for hours on end, subjected to cross-examination under the guise of conducting a good faith investigation, is reminiscent of the old Star Chamber and underscores the culture of bullying and intimidation undertaken by prior administrations at PVSD,” the grand jury said.

Brian Morgan

Brian Morgan, guidance counselor, testified that Geary and Fisher were close and showed favoritism to employees they liked.

Morgan also testified that without his knowledge or consent, he was assigned Fisher’s daughter as an intern and that he was expected to mentor her. Morgan said the girl was increasingly absent during the course of her internship, and despite his attempts to rectify the problem with her, he was unable to do so. Morgan eventually reported to the girl’s school that she had not been compliant.

Shortly after, Morgan was transferred without warning from the middle school, where he had worked for 15 years, to the high school.

Diana Siani

Diane Siani, elementary education/special ed teacher, testified, as did a number of others, that Krebs was quickly promoted in the district.

At one point Siani was transferred to the position of assistant principal at Pleasant Valley Elementary School, where she was told she was to mentor the newly promoted principal, Krebs. Siani was unhappy with the transfer, and said she and Krebs did not maintain a good relationship. Siani testified that Krebs frequently criticized her and raised his voice to her.

Siani added that she felt that she could not complain, because Krebs was favored by Geary and Fisher.

When she requested medical leave for a procedure, she said Krebs demanded to know why she would be out so long, asking questions forbidden by labor practice law.

Eventually Krebs placed Siani on an “improvement plan,” claiming that she was in danger of losing her job. Siani later found out that there was no record of the plan and took a transfer to the high school to get out from under Krebs.

Karl Rentzheimer

Karl Rentzheimer, health and physical education teacher and coach, testified that the district had separate disciplinary systems for administrators and professional staff. “Similar to other information received, Rentzheimer believes that the power structure in the administration had all come back to Chris Fisher,” the report said. “Fisher would have been responsible for much of the maneuvering and decisions and created a certain clique or ‘regime’ both before and during Carol Geary’s time as superintendent.”

After years of coaching baseball and in order to attend his own daughter’s athletic events, Rentzheimer decided to resign from coaching baseball. He asked not to be transferred and was assured by Fisher that he would not be. However, Rentzheimer’s replacement as coach became an issue. Charlie lnsarra, another gym teacher, and T.J. Murphy, a then board president’s son, were vying for the job. Rentzheimer wrote a letter of support for lnsarra to the board. Several months later, Fisher told Rentzheimer that he was going to be transferred to the Pleasant Valley Intermediate School.

“Fisher maintained that the move was to save “Twig’s” job. James “Twig” Terwilliger was the head football coach.

Steve Borger, a former board member, implied to Rentzheimer that the transfer was motivated by Rentzheimer’s support for lnsarra to replace him as coach,” the report said.

Jennifer Weaver

Jennifer Weaver, fifth-grade teacher, testified that after questioning the use of the DIBELS assessment system that she was accused of “rolling her eyes” and acting “unprofessional.”

Administrators questioned her students and accused her of mocking one of the students, according to testimony.

Weaver was represented by her building representative Joseph Agolino, which led to a number of issues to which Agolino testified.

Joseph Agolino

Joseph Agolino, social studies teacher and building representative, became involved as the administration under Geary began to discipline teachers who questioned the Step By Step Learning Program.

“Experienced, well-regarded teachers without any history of disciplinary issues began to complain about the program, questioning its effectiveness and its cost,” the report said.

As a result, Agolino testified that he was targeted by Geary and Fisher.

Two days after the Weaver meeting, Agolino was in attendance at in-service day training. During a speaker’s lecture, he was making up a quiz. According to the report, Geary questioned him, “then knocked all the papers off the table onto the floor, yelling that he was not getting paid to make up a quiz but to listen to a speaker. Geary’s outburst occurred in front of the entire faculty. Agolino was embarrassed.”

He was singled out and was accused of sexual harassment for repeating a story made by a teacher at her retirement dinner.

“The allegation was made that the targeting of Mr. Agolino was in retaliation for protected union activities, including his defense of various professional staff members who were being targeted,” the report said.

“The complaint of the female co-worker was taken and used as a weapon by Mr. Fisher to punish Agolino through the humiliation of being escorted out of his classroom, in front of the children, sent home, and forced to endure questioning at the Loudermill proceeding. Even after the administration’s own attorney found that there was no sexual harassment, the administration sought to keep punishing him with a suspension, a stain on his record, and forced sexual harassment training.”

Kristin Wolf

Kristin Wolf, third-grade teacher, also complained about the Step By Step Learning Program. Wolf testified that she attended numerous meetings with administrators and representatives of the company and talked about the hard time the teachers were having with the program. Wolf was later confronted by her principal, Krebs, and was told she was “extremely unprofessional” and that she was “negative” and she was also given a form of written discipline.

Former Reading Specialist Keri Ramsey testified before the grand jury and said that Krebs’ and Wolf’s versions of what happened at the meeting were “vastly different” and that she never saw Wolf as “negative or unprofessional.”

Ramsey and Geary currently work for Step By Step Learning Program.

John Gesiskie

John Gesiskie, physical education teacher and PSEA president, Gesiskie testified that he was the person who informed Roger Pomposello, then-assistant principal of Pleasant Valley Elementary, of the discovery of the video/audio recorder in the break room.

Gesiskie also filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania State Police. Gesiskie testified that shortly after the report the administration informed him that he was being transferred from the elementary school to Vision Quest, which is an alternate placement for juvenile offenders. Gesiskie filed a grievance, which was denied by Geary, who noted that the transfer was “in the best interest and needs of the school district.”

Gesiskie was eventually granted an arbitration hearing. On the eve of his hearing, the district offered Gesiskie a settlement proposal that would return him to PVE if he withdrew his lawsuit.

Betty VanHorn

Betty VanHorn, custodian, is currently a full-time custodian at the high school. VanHorn told the jury that she had previously worked as a substitute custodian, and at one point was told by Krebs that she could no longer be assigned to the elementary school because of a “conversation” with no other explanation.

VanHorn later applied for full-time employment and was not given the position, while others with no experience were hired over her. At one point, VanHorn addressed the school board about her concerns with being overlooked for the position.

After addressing the board, VanHorn testified that she was told by Krebs that she should have gone to him first and that “he was not sure if he wanted her to work at the district any longer.”

Current administration

Current Superintendent David Piperato was called to testify before the grand jury in January.

During his testimony, Piperato said that he did not believe testimony given by Gesiskie regarding Krebs’ having stated that the video camera had also captured audio.

The report also stated that Piperato seemed to be defending Krebs by saying he had never personally “witnessed him intimidating anyone in the six months I’ve been there. It’s never been reported to me that he’s intimidating anybody in the six months I’ve been there. I work with him every day. I’m not defending him. What I am saying to you is my decision making process is pure. It’s ethical … I’m going about this the way I believe is the right way to go about this. Not based on your case. Not based on what you’re trying to achieve. What I’m trying to do for the district.”

The report also criticizes Piperato on his response to Detective Wendy Serfass, of the District Attorney’s Office, reading a statement at a school board meeting. Serfass said that the investigation by the grand jury was ongoing and that anyone with information should contact her office.

Piperato and several board members communicated by email regarding the ongoing investigation.

“My grand jury testimony today further convinced me that those in charge of the legal proceedings have no interest in allowing us to move the district forward,” he wrote. “Their only interest is to get a conviction.”

In a separate email, he wrote that while the detective was criticizing the district for using its discretion in not suspending Krebs (at the time) it was OK for the DA’s office to use discretion in not bringing charges against Alex Sterenchock for the same items as Krebs when the grand jury had recommended it.

Sterenchock is in charge of information technology for the district and assisted Krebs with the video/audio camera installation and recording.

There is also an outstanding grievance by Gesiskie that resulted from a warning letter sent by Human Resources Director John Burrus to Gesiskie regarding Gesiskie allegedly pressuring a district employee into testifying in the Krebs matter.

In an attachment to the report, Burrus defends his action stating that he was assured that the warning letter had been approved by the DA’s office.

Gesiskie has requested arbitration in the matter.

School board

The grand jury also spoke with a number of school board directors regarding the matters at hand. Board members who testified before the grand jury are: current board President Len Peeters, Susan Kresge, Dan Wunder, Russell Gould and Robert Serfass.

Len Peeters testified that when he became aware of the criticism of the Step By Step program and its cost, he was committed to ending it.

“It took two years to stop the program, but it went from over $600 to over $200,000 before we got rid of it. So it dropped $400,000. That’s a lot of money.”

Peeters said costs may have been covered by a grant, but did not know if it was specific to that program or a general grant.

Gould testified that he “felt that Ms. Geary’s role as superintendent was harmful to the district as a whole.”

He said the board worked to ensure that Geary’s contract would not be renewed.

When asked about Geary’s leadership style, Gould called it “authoritarian and ‘bully’ like.”

One example of cronyism under Geary, Gould said, was the case of Jason Fisher, brother of Chris Fisher, the recently retired former director of support services. Jason Fisher, who was employed in maintenance, lost his license because of a DUI charge.

Geary planned to provide district transportation to Fisher during his license suspension, but Gould opposed that plan because the job requirements called for a licensed driver.

Fisher was later found operating a vehicle on district grounds while under the influence of alcohol, but was under the legal limit. Gould said he was placed on leave without pay, but resigned before his scheduled Loudermill hearing.

Serfass spoke about hearing complaints about the administration abusing power by transferring or reassigning staff members.

Serfass said, “I think they’re good people (referring to the present administration); they just had a bad leader and I think it has gone on for years.”