Jim Thorpe Area School Board members have approved a five-year contract with the district's Act 93 employees.

The board voted to approve the contract at a meeting last week.Fourteen midlevel administrators are included in the Act 93 group, including all principals and vice principals and other administrators who report to the superintendent.The administrators had been working for more than a year under their old contract, which expired in June 2014. The new contract, retroactive to July 1, 2014, runs through June 2019.Superintendent Brian Gasper said that the administrators do a great job, and like all district personnel, deserve to be compensated fairly."They do a fantastic job for the district, and we're glad that our board was able to come together and offer them a fair compensation plan," Gasper said.The contract includes pay raises for the administrators, meaning the district will pay roughly $154,000 more than it would if the old contract had been extended.Under the contract, the administrators will receive pay raises for each of the five years - $2,500 in each of the first two years, and $2,000 for each of the subsequent three years.Gasper said that when the district was preparing its budget for 2014-15 and 2015-16, officials planned for the retroactive pay raises, and budgeted accordingly.When Gasper was hired as superintendent last March, the district's three main collective bargaining units were working without contracts.Since then, all three have signed contracts - with the Act 93 employees being the last to reach an agreement.In addition to all of the district's principals and assistant principals, the Act 93 group includes the district's director of special education, director of technology and information services, director of buildings and grounds, athletic director, director of special education, director of security and director of transportation."It's a win for our district, and a win for the administrators," Gasper said.