Pleasant Valley proposes new position, restructuring director of operations duties

Pleasant Valley School District Superintendent David Piperato proposed creating a new job position to reassign some of current Director of Operations William Gasper’s duties at the Board of Education meeting Thursday night.

The proposed position is titled Supervisor of Auxiliary Functions/Services. The supervisor would oversee the daily operations of leadership for transportation, food services, school police and security, and fundraising/field trips at the district office level, Piperato said at the meeting.

Former directors of support services, who oversaw operations, were educators rather than buildings and grounds people, Piperato said.

The maintenance responsibilities used to belong to Travis Serfass, the Director of Buildings and Grounds, who resigned last month.

Since Gasper has 16 years of experience in this field, Piperato argued that he should be freed from some of the other administrative responsibilities in order to focus on buildings and grounds.

“We are best served if we allow him to stay in his area of expertise,” Piperato said at the meeting.

“I would like Mr. Gasper’s focus to be on building and grounds, not fundraising/field trips,” board member Daniel Wunder agreed.

But board member Len Peeters questioned the need for the new position.

“We don’t need to watch our own supervisors,” Peeters said during the discussion. “I think there’s other positions we could use in place of that, and that’s my opinion.”

The new position would be in lieu of Serfass’ position, Piperato said.

The school district has recently restructured other administrative positions as well, creating one new position and saving the school district about $33,000, Piperato said during the meeting.

There is room in the budget for a new salary because of Serfass’ resignation, so these savings will change depending on whether the new supervisor’s salary is more or less than Serfass’ old salary, Piperato said.

The board agreed to continue this discussion and possibly vote on it during their next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 22.