Pleasant Valley hires AD

The Pleasant Valley School District board of directors voted to hire Thomas Toth as director of athletics and activities Thursday night, just days before fall sports practices are set to begin.

Toth is replacing Jason Mattern, who resigned in July less than a month after his hire following allegations of harassment.

Toth, who will be paid $90,000, earned his masters in educational administration and has served as assistant principal for the Bangor Area School District since 2011.

A job description was not available, but an advertisement for the job said the candidate must have a certificate in athletic administration, principal certification or a combination of like credentials and work experience. Candidates were required to have five years of experience in athletic operations, preferably in public education.

Toth has plenty of athletic experience. He was quarterback for Bangor, graduating in 1991. Toth went on to serve as head football coach for Bangor Area High School from 2002-05 and again from 2016-18.

The vote was 5-4, with Directors Donna Yozwiak, Delbert Zacharias, Laura Jecker and Len Peeters opposed.

“I’m definitely not against (Toth) personally, but against the position, but I’ve stated it in the past,” Jecker said when she gave her vote during the meeting.

The board voted in March to make the athletic director position an administrative rather than a teaching role and added additional duties, including chairing five departments. The position had been filled for 14 years by Jake Percey, who was later reassigned to serve as a science teacher.

The Pleasant Valley Education Association then filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the school district for turning a union position into an Act 93, or administrative position, according to Jecker.

Citing the unfair labor charge, Jecker said after the meeting that she couldn’t support the position since she doesn’t feel the board can guarantee that the position is going to remain administrative.

“It was a labor position, teacher position, and they turned it into Act 93, and I just didn’t feel like it was right for them to offer it to someone because I just feel it’s up in the air, it’s not something we can guarantee,” Jecker said.

Jecker and the other directors who voted against Toth’s hire also voted against the reclassification of the position in March and the hire of Mattern in June.