A little over a month after it passed an increase for its full-time cafeteria workers, Jim Thorpe Area School Board has chosen to overturn that decision.

On a 6-1 vote at a special meeting on Wednesday, the school board agreed to rescind and revoke giving the cafeteria workers a 50-cent-per-hour increase, contingent upon the Teamsters approval.Directors Pearl Downs-Sheckler, John Ciavarella, Dr. Clem McGinley, Randall Smith, Michael Huber and board President Dr. Michael Principe were in favor. Director Gerald Strubinger was opposed. Directors Dennis McGinley and Glenn Confer were absent.There are eight full-time cafeteria workers in the district, all members of the Teamsters union. Three of them attended the meeting.One cafeteria worker, who wished to keep her identity anonymous, addressed the board."I just don't understand all of this. We work just as hard as everyone else," the woman said. "We don't want to lose our jobs. We all need our health insurance."Principe told the workers in attendance that the board isn't opposed to giving them their raise, and that the decision had nothing to do with the workers, but rather, "It's all process."Mark Laubach, business agent with Teamsters local 773, which represents the cafeteria workers, told the board the group is still interested in the 50-cent-per-hour increase."I believe playing with the emotions of the cafeteria staff isn't the right way to go about this," Laubach said.After the meeting, the three cafeteria workers said they were "disappointed," and "hurt," by the board's decision.Laubach said the next step is for the board to contact him and talk about the matter further."It's not done," said Laubach, who added he was "very optimistic" the workers will eventually receive their raise.Principe said the board will refer the issue to its policy and personnel committee.After the meeting, board solicitor Gregory Mousseau said, "We want to do it properly."Clem McGinley said the issue was not getting the 50-cent-per-hour increase, but rather contractual issues."In order to give them that increase, the entire contract would probably have to be reopened," McGinley said. "We'll take this back to policy/personnel committee and look at all the options in order to see if we can't increase 50-cent-per-hour in the appropriate way."Superintendent Brian J. Gasper said it was a "matter of process," and added that it was "realized that it wasn't necessarily approved the right way."Last month, the board voted 8-0 to give the district's full-time cafeteria workers a 50-cent-per-hour raise to bring them in line with the district's other support staff.However, the raise needed approval from the workers' labor union.The board was split at that time whether to table the vote after Strubinger made the motion for the raise.Strubinger said at that time the eight full-time cafeteria workers did not receive a raise in the most recent contract agreed to by their union. As a result of that negotiation, the board decided to make most of their cafeteria workers contractors.Some board members wanted to first contact the union to get their thoughts at that time, but the board made the vote contingent on the union's approval.Teamster's Local 773 represents the district's cafeteria and maintenance workers.They signed a new contract in 2014, which included annual 50-cent pay increases for everyone except the cafeteria workers throughout the contract.