Restrictions put on school official Pleasant Valley’s Krebs to have no contact with elementary teachers

A judge has ordered a Pleasant Valley school administrator to have no contact with teachers at the Pleasant Valley Elementary as he awaits trial for illegally recording conversations in the school’s break room.

Joshua Krebs, the district’s director of Support Services, is also barred from contacting two custodians who he previously supervised, as part of the conditions of his bail.

Krebs has remained on the job as he awaits trial on eight felony counts including intercept communications and disclosing of intercepted communications.

Pleasant Valley Superintendent David Piperato said in a statement Friday that his administration has cooperated with the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office throughout the investigation and is focused on educating the students of Pleasant Valley School District.

Meanwhile, the grand jury that recommended charges against Krebs is set to reconvene next week to investigate more allegations against past and current Pleasant Valley administrators.

Wiretap charges

The grand jury alleged that in April 2016, Krebs and a district employee installed video cameras in a break room at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in an effort to catch a custodian taking long breaks during working hours.

The break room was the only place in the school where staff were permitted to take and make personal phone calls. A member of the staff noticed the cameras and reported it to building union representative John Gesiskie.

Krebs appeared before magisterial district judge Daniel Higgins, where he chose to waive a preliminary hearing on the charges.

By waiving his right to a preliminary hearing, Krebs’ case will proceed to a formal arraignment before Judge Jonathan Mark. The arraignment is scheduled for March 14.

Krebs’ bail conditions were disclosed on Friday as follows:

• Defendant shall have no contact with teachers at the Pleasant Valley Elementary School, including but not limited to, John Gesiskie, Dawn Wisser, Kim Smith and any other teachers at the said school,

• The defendant shall have no contact with and no supervisory authority over Crystal Reph and Jared Rechenberger.

• This no contact order includes the defendant not appearing at any committee meetings in which any Pleasant Valley Elementary teachers or other persons covered by this order, appear.

• If there are any emergencies to the building at Pleasant Valley Elementary, the defendant can access the building to deal with the issue.

Widening net

On the eve of Krebs’ preliminary hearing, arresting detective, Wendy Serfass of the Office of the District Attorney of Monroe County addressed the Pleasant Valley School Board by reading a statement which reaffirmed that the investigating grand jury was still impaneled and would be conducting further investigations into “allegations involving past and present members of the school administration of the Pleasant Valley School District.”

She said the conduct alleged may involve criminal violations of bribery in official matters, threats and improper influence in official and political matters, retaliation for past official action, official oppression and violations of the Pennsylvania Wire Tap Act.”

In response to Serfass attending the school board meeting, Piperato released the following statement:

“The Pleasant Valley School Board and administration have been fully cooperating with the District Attorney’s office throughout this entire investigation.

“The contents of the statement read last night were not new information, had been reported multiple times in the press, and are common knowledge in this community. We were disappointed that the District Attorney’s office decided to make the statement during a school board meeting, especially on a night in which we recognized school board members with presentations by many students from kindergarten through high school.”

Piperato concluded, “We remain committed to our focus of educating the students of the Pleasant Valley School District and will continue to do our best to eliminate distractions.”

Indictment

In August, the Monroe County Investigating grand jury met to review evidence and interview witnesses regarding the video/audio recording. In November the grand jury issued a presentment saying the grand jury had found reasonable grounds to believe that both Krebs and district technology coordinator Alex Sterenchock had violated provisions of the Pennsylvania Wire Tap Act on April 5 and 6 of 2016.

The grand jury recommended that both men be charged with a number of felonies. As of today, only Krebs has been charged.

Gesiskie confirmed that a number of district staff were served subpoenas during the board meeting Thursday. Some were to attend Krebs’ preliminary hearing and others to appear before the grand jury this coming Tuesday.

In a statement released Friday, First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso thanked the witnesses who appeared in court and asked anyone with additional information to contact Serfass.